Media: Scholz’s peace plan suggests Ukraine cede territory to Russia

Italian media reports on German Chancellor Scholz's alleged Ukraine peace plan, involving potential territorial concessions, which Kyiv rejects, while Moscow remains open to proposals.

Sep 10, 2024 - 21:00
Media: Scholz’s peace plan suggests Ukraine cede territory to Russia

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According to a report by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica on 9 September, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is allegedly preparing a “peace plan” for Ukraine to bring Moscow to the negotiations table. The plan reportedly includes allowing Russia to retain illegally captured Ukrainian territories, and is based on the hypothesis that Kyiv would somehow accept territorial concessions. The news has prompted reactions from both Kyiv and Moscow, as per BBC Ukraine.

La Repubblica says Scholz aims to go down in history as a “peace chancellor” by using the war in Ukraine to regain lost political positions. The newspaper cites sources in the German parliament, claiming that Scholz is working with some party members on a kind of “Minsk agreements” that could involve transferring part of Ukrainian territory to Moscow.

While Scholz has not officially commented on his alleged “ceasefire” plans, he stated in a recent interview with German channel ZDF that the next peace conference should include Russia. He mentioned discussing this issue with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with whom he has “good” relations.

The Minsk accords were Russia’s attempts in late 2014 and early 2015 at legitimization of its control of parts of Ukraine’s Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts. Both Minsk agreements formally were ceasefire deals brokered by then German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande, including provisions that were impossible for both Ukraine and Russia to implement.

The deals required troop withdrawal, which was impossible for Russia as it would lose control of occupied areas, and representation of Russian occupation authorities in Ukraine’s parliament, which Ukraine couldn’t accept as it implied recognizing Russian-run entities.

The documents were never ratified by Ukraine and failed to establish a lasting ceasefire, as low-intensity trench warfare persisted in eastern Ukraine. However, they provided Ukraine with several relatively calm years to reform its military before Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

Ukraine and Russia’s reactions

In response to the publication, Andrii Yermak, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, emphasized that Ukraine would only agree to peace on the condition of regaining all its territories.

“Exclusively the Ukrainian ‘peace formula’, norms of international law, territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. This is the only way to justice,” Yermak wrote on Telegram.

The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, stated that Russia is ready to consider any proposals but would like to receive details of the German Chancellor’s initiative first.

“We don’t brush off any plans in advance, but we need to understand what it’s about. We ourselves learned about this from the media, that supposedly some plan is being prepared. We don’t know what details might be involved there,” Peskov said, according to BBC Ukraine.

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