German FM says negotiations with Putin not possible, Ukraine must win back its peace

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock dismissed on Sunday the possibility of negotiating an end to the Ukraine war with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the near future.

She said there was no basis for negotiations. “I wish we could negotiate. But at the moment it is not [about] what you wish for, but at the moment it is about facing reality,” she said according to state broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW).

The minister argued that there were numerous attempts to negotiate with Putin ahead of the invasion. “The response to that was that 100,000 troops went in,” she said.

She stressed that Germany “had to learn in a brutal way, especially with regard to the Russian war of aggression, that one-sided dependencies make us vulnerable and susceptible,” adding, “We therefore have to protect our own resilience, our own security, and reduce dependencies that threaten us in our desire for peace and freedom.”

The German FM emphasized that the answer to the Russia-Ukraine conflict lies with Kyiv winning back its land and peace.

“That will only work if this brutal Russian war of aggression is stopped, if the Russian soldiers leave Ukraine and these daily nightly attacks by drones, by missiles, by bombs on Ukraine stop,” she said.