Ukraine, for its part, is seeking backing from Munich and hopes for new promises of armed support, writes Anna Saraste, ‘s journalist following the Munich meeting.
MUNICH If the Munich Annual Security Conference is a thermometer of world politics, it will look briskly red this year.
About 500 heads of state, ministers and representatives of organizations have gathered in Munich for three days to discuss the world’s most burning conflicts and security threats.
Discussions include the situation in Afghanistan, the prevention of future pandemics and climate change.
However, one topic dominates all corridor discussions: is Russia really going to attack Ukraine? How should one react to the growing situation?
President of the United States Joe Biden is convinced that the President of Russia Vladimir Putin has decided to attack Ukraine, even the capital Kiev.
For the time being, European leaders do not agree with Biden’s assessment of the situation, but there has been an increase in their talk of relying on diplomatic means: “until the last”.
– For Russia, it is a matter of clarifying the situation in eastern Ukraine, the president estimates Sauli Niinistö to the Finnish media at a press conference in Munich.
He said a number of things had led to a rapid development: Putin’s concern about NATO’s eastward expansion, Germany’s long-standing federal chancellor Angela Merkelin departure and the resulting leadership vacuum in Europe.
These would trigger a series of actions that Niinistö said would have been hard to imagine half a year ago.
The EU, NATO and the United States want to keep conversations open to Russia. In Munich, however, Russian representatives are missing. For the first time since 1991, Russia did not send any official representatives of the state to the security meeting.
So in Munich, one has only to guess what is going on in the head of the Russian president these hours and days.
Ukrainians, on the other hand, are spectacularly involved. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi spoke on the main stage of a security conference on Saturday and questioned the effectiveness of the threat posed by financial sanctions.
Ukraine is applying for background support from the conference and, above all, possible new promises of armed support. Finland has also been asked for armed assistance, but Finland has invoked its arms export ban to conflict areas.
Finland is not alone with its position. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has repeatedly said that Germany does not intend to export arms to Ukraine. In Munich, he said that if Russia invaded Ukraine, it would be a “serious mistake”.
The main output of the meeting are opportunities for bilateral meetings of influencers outside the formal program. Russia’s presence in these discussions this year would have been more than desired.
Now Europe and the United States have been left to reflect on a crisis that is showing no signs of abating.