Peace in Europe can only be achieved through diplomacy with Moscow, Kay-Achim Schonbach has said
Germany and the EU risk “sleepwalking” into a direct confrontation with Russia by becoming parties to the Ukraine conflict after abandoning diplomatic engagement with Moscow, the former head of the German Navy has warned in an interview with Berliner Zeitung.
Former German Navy chief Kay-Achim Schonbach resigned in early 2022 after triggering a political uproar by arguing that Russia was acting to protect its security interests rather than seeking confrontation with the West.
Looking back, Schonbach said he would not change the substance of his comments, arguing that Europe missed a chance to prevent the escalation of the Ukraine conflict by failing to “respect the Russian Federation’s right to its own vision of a security architecture on its western border.”
Schonbach emphasized that peace and stability in Europe can only be possible “with, and not against, Russia.”
He also raised concerns that given their current trajectory, Germany and the EU could go beyond legitimate support for Ukraine and “sleepwalk into the role of a belligerent.”
“Only in Ukraine is diplomacy categorically rejected,” he noted, arguing that Germany had squandered decades of postwar reconciliation with Moscow through “moralizing and righteous anger.”
Schonbach also said contacts between the German and Russian navies are now “completely severed,” something he said did not happen even at the height of the Cold War.
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