LIBERATION: There are reports that Ukraine has struck Russia with US-made long-range missiles for the first time. This came after the outgoing Biden administration lifted its restrictions on Kiev’s use of ATACMS missiles on Sunday, having previously refused to do so. What do you make of this latest US-led escalation of the war in Ukraine? How serious is it?

SEVIM DAGDELEN: The outgoing Biden administration is risking World War III in Ukraine. Together with Keir Starmer, who trails after the defeated US president like a poodle, they are both prepared to risk everything in the doomed Ukraine proxy war. Joe Biden and Keir Starmer are irresponsible warmongers who are putting the security of the population at risk so as to avert defeat at all costs.

Britain has announced it is also considering providing Ukraine with similar long-range armaments. Will Germany’s current beleaguered coalition government likely do the same and relent from its current position, through the provision of Taurus long-range missiles to Kiev?

The coalition in Germany has collapsed. New elections have been scheduled for February 23 2025. Thus far, the Social Democrat chancellor Olaf Scholz has blocked delivery of the Taurus, but the Christian Democrats, the Greens and the Liberals are putting intense pressure on him to send these long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine.

The fact is that if the Taurus missiles are delivered, German soldiers would also be involved in firing them at Russia. The chancellor is reluctant to authorise the delivery because it would essentially be a declaration of war by Germany against Russia. The US and Great Britain are apparently prepared to make this de facto declaration of war. 

Linked with the above question, when asked whether Germany would immediately follow the US and provide the Taurus missiles to Ukraine, Chancellor Olaf Scholz notably omitted to do so — in clear contrast to the positions of the US, Britain, and other EU allies. This also followed his direct conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Are we therefore witnessing the beginning of a volte face or shift in position on the part of Germany towards a political-diplomatic solution to the war in Ukraine — and, if so, what are the wider implications of this?

Take the question of the delivery of heavy battle tanks — here, Olaf Scholz has always followed the US. In view of the SPD’s poor polling and his own, Scholz is now trying to make a name for himself as a peace chancellor.

Polls show that 61 per cent of the population in Germany is against the delivery of these Taurus missiles, and a majority of SPD voters are also opposed.

The Sahra Wagenkecht Alliance (BSW) especially stands against Germany’s entry into the war. We likewise reject the planned stationing in Germany of US missiles targeting Russian command centres; we are demanding a referendum so as to prevent this lunacy where a US president decides on their use, and the populations of Germany and Europe bear the risk.

We have now passed 1,000 days since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. What is the current general attitude and public opinion in Germany on this issue? And, in brief, where do the political parties in Germany stand?

Polls show that a large majority of both the German and Ukrainian populations are in favour of an immediate ceasefire and negotiations to find a diplomatic resolution.

By contrast, the CDU/CSU, the Greens, the FDP and some sections of the SPD are calling for arms deliveries to Ukraine to carry on until victory. The Left Party (Die Linke) wants to bring Russia to its knees through intensified economic warfare.

Some in the party are also calling for the delivery of German tanks to Ukraine. Although the right-wing AfD is in favour of diplomacy in Ukraine, it’s not credible as a peace party given its unconditional support for the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — parts of which are right-wing extremist and against whom an international arrest warrant has now been issued by the International Criminal Court — not to mention its endorsement of massive German rearmament.

The BSW alone is standing up to the toxic political mixture of self-destructive economic warfare, ever more money and weapons for Ukraine in pursuit of an illusory victory over a nuclear power, Russia, and an end to rearmament.

In your view, what are the actual prospects of securing peace, to avoid further bloodshed, destruction, and escalation — including potentially a nuclear stand-off?

The reckless unleashing of US and British missiles — to be fired by Nato troops on Russia –– must be stopped. We must prevent Biden and Starmer from detonating a third world war. We now face a situation that is far more dangerous than the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

When I hear that Nato is counting on Moscow not to follow through with its threat of a counter-strike, or that the Russian President Vladimir Putin is assumed to be bluffing, we are dealing with the mentality of a sleepwalker headed towards a major war.

What will the reaction be if next time Russian missiles hit British arms factories? Will they then opt for a nuclear war that would mean the end of Europe?

The detachment from reality exhibited by Nato policy-makers and the military in Europe is quite remarkable. One can see how war approaches in slow motion — whether it’s the German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock pushing for war and proclaiming that the aim is to “ruin Russia,” or the British generals declaring that the army stands ready to take on Russia.

Historically speaking, this recalls the Wilhelminian overconfidence and grotesque underestimation of one’s opponents that paved the way to the first world war.

In the event of a sharp escalation of the war, particularly in the case of a major Russian retaliation against a Nato/EU country, would this likely encourage the bringing about of a common platform for de-escalation, the reaching of a diplomatic-political solution, and peace among progressives in Germany? What is your reading of the mood there in this respect?

A large majority in Germany is against entering the war via the delivery of guided missiles to Ukraine. It’s now a matter of how this majority is to be mobilised. The problem for the war-drunk parties in Germany, with the Greens and the Christian Democrats at the forefront, is that despite constant propaganda in all public media, the population refuses to be “war-ready.”

We urgently need an internationally linked anti-war movement. Seeing that there are people in the UK and the US who don’t want to go along with this madness is a great encouragement to us.

I find it distressing that more people in the Trump camp than on the progressive side favour a diplomatic solution. Here, some have not yet understood that by staying silent, they are not only exacerbating the risk of world war, but ultimately also doing away with themselves as a party.

After all, who would believe them if they were to stand up for social justice and peace when they are currently doing exactly the opposite by supporting a policy of escalation?

Sevim Dagdelen is the foreign policy spokesperson for the BSW Group in the German Bundestag. 

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