Former German Armed Forces Chief Dick Berlin does not completely rule out ground troops in Ukraine, he says in the BNR’s De Wereld newspaper. Berlin points out that the West has already switched from providing shrapnel vests to Patriot tanks and F-16s. Although he does not believe this will happen in the short term, “it is possible that such a step will be taken at some point.”
Former commander does not rule out the presence of ground forces on the ground in Ukraine
At the end of February, French President Macron decided not to rule out the presence of French troops on the ground in Ukraine. Although he does not expect this to happen any time soon, Berlin is not ruling out the possibility either. “What I like about Macron’s statement is that it has at least introduced some uncertainty into Putin’s calculations.” In military terms, Berlin calls it: keeping your opponent in the dark. According to Berlin, Macron’s proposal implies that nothing is off the table and that the West is also taking this into account.
Military sense
“You don’t want your opponent to see your cards,” says Berlin. “You don’t want to say in advance what you’re not going to do, because the opponent will react to that,” he says, noting that Putin does that all the time: “He makes moves and we always have to react to them.” Whereas the West has to turn this around and take the initiative. “And that also makes sense militarily.” That’s what Macron has tried to do. [met zijn uitspraak]. I think it’s good that you introduce uncertainty. I wouldn’t rule out that happening at some point, yes.
Guns and Freedom
Ukraine should not only be given weapons, but also be given the freedom to use them as they wish if they can stop Russian attacks on civilian targets, says former armed forces chief Dick Berlin in De Vereld of the BNR. “We give them a lot of things, but they have to fight with one hand behind their backs.”
Berlin calls for Ukraine to increase its use of weapons. Even if all these air defense systems were sent to Ukraine, they are expensive and rare. You cannot avoid the possibility that missiles from Donbas, Crimea or Russia will always hit Ukrainian cities. And so Ukrainian freedom to attack launch facilities, aircraft, airports or both is where attacks on civilian targets come from.
How long to wait?
The former commander wonders how long the West will wait now that the Russians have deliberately attacked civilian targets. ‘How long will we wait? When will the moment come when we say, ‘This is done for,’’ the former commander said. ‘For us, that moment is long overdue. We should have made the decision to expand much earlier. We have a moral obligation to give them the freedom to put an end to this “horrific barbarism.”’
What is “don’t lose”?
Berlin suggests that the desire to shift to supplying Ukraine with increasingly heavier weapons is not the goal, he said. “We have a big problem, which is that we don’t know what we mean when we say that Ukraine shouldn’t lose,” he said. According to the former commander, this can have different meanings. What is “not losing”? Losing territory? All Russians out of the country? Stopping bombings? Because this ambition is unclear, “we are sending weapons without knowing how or what.”
What Berlin also sees as a point of contention is the slowness with which weapons and systems like F-16s are finding their way to the East. “We are giving up.” Berlin acknowledges that bureaucracy and cumbersome, complex decision-making have slowed the process “and it’s taking longer than we want,” but the West should have decided earlier that Ukraine could not lose out, and should have started providing support earlier.