Despite economic difficulties that the EU is experiencing due to gas embargo from Russia, support for Ukraine has even grown, – Dr. Umland

The number of discussions in the European Union regarding the supply of weapons to Ukraine has decreased against the background of the crimes of the Russian army. Andreas Umland, a German political scientist and analyst at the Stockholm Center for Eastern European Studies, said this on the air of the FREEDOM TV channel.

He noted that the United States is actively helping Ukraine, thanks to the start of lend-lease, assistance from there will begin to flow even faster and easier. In the EU, there have always been too many discussions on this topic. Difficulties are connected with the fact that the European Union every time when making such decisions is forced to seek a consensus of all 27 EU member states.

“I think that all the same, these constant escalations and atrocities and war crimes have led to the fact that there are fewer fundamental discussions regarding assistance to Ukraine, and they are now marginal. And well, I know the situation better, say, in Germany, where the question is rather about how to help Ukraine. And we also see that, despite this escalation, there is also support from the population there, despite the economic difficulties that the European Union is currently experiencing in connection with the gas embargo from Russia, support for Ukraine has even grown over the past three months from 70 to 74% of those who speak about the need to further and more help Ukraine,” said Umland.

As for the nuclear threats from the Russian Federation, the political scientist noted that this psychological war can be called partially successful, because “more and more people are afraid of becoming a victim of the Third World War.” In his opinion, the purpose of such nuclear blackmail by Russia is an attempt to motivate the West to influence Ukraine so that it gives up its territory. At the same time, Umland noted that there was some pressure from Western countries on Ukraine during the Minsk talks and it is already in the past. In Germany, they realized that they should not persuade Ukraine to make concessions.

“I observe in Germany, this is already such an understanding that this is the decision of Ukraine, as it speaks at the negotiations, and we can only make a decision for ourselves whether we will continue to support Ukraine or not,” the political scientist said.

Pro-Russian forces have been stigmatized and marginalized since February 24, Umland says. Putin’s soft power has lost its weight in countries like Germany.

“Still, after February 24, a pro-Russian approach – “Putinversteher” – has lost its justification. People could say that we need to somehow find some kind of joint future with Russia. Now, after all, this “soft power”, as I said, it has lost its weight in countries such as Germany,” the political scientist noted.