Since the meeting of European state and government leaders at the Ukraine summit in Paris on February 17, 2025, there has been a peculiar shadow debate in the media and among some European politicians about “peace troops” in Ukraine. Although there is no peace in Ukraine yet, it is great to talk about some troops that are supposed to ensure peace. The idea that these troops should be provided by NATO states or, even more absurd, by NATO itself, is completely crazy.
Ukraine to be declared a NATO state?
The fundamental reason for the Ukraine war was the attempt to declare Ukraine a NATO state. As if the Russians were so naive as to let the high-risk NATO at their border. People in Moscow also know what the NATO has done in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq: war, death and destruction. It is perverse to put a lethal NATO label on the NATO troops now.
War in Ukraine is lost
Who, despite the obvious absurdity of such plans, tries to send NATO to Ukraine, wants no peace, wants to prolong the war and even wants to win it for NATO. But the NATO war in Ukraine is lost. Neither NATO nor its closer friends in Germany will admit this. German Chancellor Scholz wants to “not leave Ukraine alone”. Its army should be further supported. Is it still going on? More weapons? More war? The losers are trying to beautify their defeat.
Hope for NATO peace troops
A peak of the belittled defeat is provided by the green election campaigner Habeck: He accuses Russia and the US of “betrayal”. Moreover, the chancellor candidate, who will certainly not become chancellor, wants to “use frozen Russian assets more strongly”. Who believes he can enrich himself at the expense of Russian assets, has not heard the shot. He probably hopes for NATO peace troops.
The dead warn: for what?
Deal-maker Trump has understood that the Ukraine war is a bad deal: He is stepping out. German NATO epigones are still betting on more armament, more militarization of society, more profits for the arms industry. The lost NATO war in Ukraine will have a backward pull. The NATO epigones will then have also lost their ideological war; they just don’t know it yet and stumble like zombies over a battlefield, where the dead warn: For what?
Uli Gellermann is a filmmaker and journalist. His experiences with public broadcasters justify his media criticism. He is the operator of the internet site www.rationalgalerie.de.
The article was first published on February 21, 2025, on www.rationalgalerie.de.