Ukraine won’t get German-style reunification – Medvedev
Suggestions that Ukraine could get a security deal similar to West Germany after World War II are betting on the dissolution of Russia, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has claimed.
West Germany joined NATO in 1955, while East Germany remained part of the Soviet bloc until reunification in 1990. Moscow did not oppose the move, as the US and its allies had assured the USSR’s leaders that Western troops would not go beyond Germany’s eastern border. NATO’s breach of that promise is the primary cause of the current animosity between Russia and the West, according to Russian officials.
Some Western news outlets have reported that the so-called “German model” could see Ukraine granted membership of NATO, with mutual defence guarantees applying only to territory under Kiev’s actual control. A Western source quoted by the Financial Times last October described the idea as the “only game in town,” but critics have warned that formal NATO accession may lead to further escalation between Russia and the US-led military bloc.
Medvedev, who serves as deputy chair of the Russian Security Council, commented on the “German scenario” on Monday, dismissing the notion that Kiev could ever seize control of its former regions.
“Who would honestly consider a scenario, in which a nuclear power relinquishes something to the ugly dwarf named Ukraine?” he wrote in a Telegram post. “It means they can only count on Russia’s dissolution.”
Attempts to draw parallels between the Ukraine conflict and post-WWII Germany are nothing more than Kiev trying to placate “rabid neo-Nazis.” It is more likely that ethnic Russian people living in Ukraine would seek reunification with Russia, he added.
People in five former Ukrainian regions voted in referendums to break away from Kiev and join Russia following the Western-backed armed coup in Kiev in 2014. Ukraine and its backers have denied the legitimacy of those polls.
Kiev is seeking to reclaim full control over lands it still claims using military force and diplomatic pressure. Moscow has described the hostilities as a Western proxy war against Russia, with Ukrainian soldiers serving as “cannon fodder.”
