German ambassador to Ukraine: friendship with Russia will not be restored
Boris Ruge, Germany's ambassador to Ukraine, told European Pravda he opposes restoring ties with Russia or resuming Russian energy supplies to Europe via Ukraine. He called Germany's earlier attempt at partnership with Moscow a mistake.
Germany's ambassador to Ukraine, Boris Ruge, has said he does not support restoring ties with Russia or resuming Russian energy supplies to Europe via Ukraine as a way to achieve lasting peace. He made the remarks in an interview with European Pravda, a Ukrainian news outlet, against the backdrop of Russia's war against Ukraine.
Ruge said Germany's relations with Russia since 1991 offer a clear example, and that Germany made a terrible mistake in assuming it could develop a partnership with Moscow. In his assessment, Russia walked away from that partnership and became an aggressive imperialist actor seeking to overturn Europe's entire political order.
A 20-year effort that failed
The ambassador stressed that Germany and the rest of Europe had made considerable efforts to build constructive, positive relations with Russia. According to him, Russia abandoned the NATO-Russia Council, the energy partnership and other forms of cooperation, choosing war, hybrid attacks and interference in the information space and politics instead.
He said those in Europe, Germany included, who now call for rebuilding positive relations with Russia have forgotten that this approach was pursued for 20 years and ended in enormous failure. The biggest failure, he said, was in energy: Western Europe believed that being a major market for Russia would give Moscow an interest in preserving peace, but Putin's vision proved completely different.
No return to the old approach
Ruge said Germany would not go back to that approach and that he did not believe the majority of Germans would support it. He added that very few people in Western Europe would be willing to become dependent on Russia again in any way.
The ambassador also believes there have been no genuine peace negotiations in the context of Russia's war against Ukraine, because it is Russia that does not want peace.
