On "Victory Day" Vladimir Putin was unable to announce that he had won his Patriotic War.

The “special operations” have not succeeded in bombing out regime change (“denazification”) in Ukraine.

The major offensive in the east made little progress.

The Russian armed forces primarily “demilitarized” themselves in costly battles.

Ukraine, on the other hand, is being armed by the West like never before in its history.

This support had been slow to get off the ground after the invasion because it was also expected in the West that the Russian invaders would overrun Ukraine within days.

But the Ukrainians showed such a willingness to defend themselves that even the thought of a victory for the attacked over the invaders is no longer considered unreal.

In the German debate, which shies away from the term "Sieg" (because some still think of "Heil"), formulas like "Ukraine must not lose the war" and "Putin must not win the war" are preferred.

Slowly, however, German politics is also becoming bolder on the battlefield of words.

In his speech on May 8, Chancellor Scholz even dared to predict that “Putin will not win the war”.

However, he did not want to go as far as the EU Commission President von der Leyen.

She says: "We want Ukraine to win this war."

Can Moscow keep Donbass and Crimea?

But what exactly is meant by lose/not lose and win/not win?

There are endless arguments about the means, but the debate remains vague when it comes to the end.

Has Ukraine won if there are no more Russian soldiers on Ukrainian soil?

Didn't Putin win if he gets to keep Donbass and Crimea?

Then the flow of speech falters.

At best, it is then pointed out that there should be no “dictated peace” and that only the Ukrainians should decide which outcome of the war is acceptable to them.

Anyone who does not want to be a party to the war finds it difficult to set war goals.

Only Washington announced that it wants to weaken Russia so that it cannot commit another attack.

In Berlin, on the other hand, most statements only go as far as the desired armistice.

Then the zone of helplessness begins.

Because it is still not clear what an agreement that both Putin and the Ukrainians could live with should look like.

Putin tied himself up with his propaganda

The Russian President has captivated himself with his absurd propaganda against Ukraine, America and NATO.

It is true that dictators determine what public opinion is in their empires.

But even Hitler could not have withdrawn from Russia in 1942 with the remark that the attack and his entire world view were regrettable mistakes.

With his war against Ukraine, Putin is leading Russia to ruin.

He cannot also return home as a defeated commander.

He needs to bring back loot - at least parts of Ukraine he didn't already have.

But how could Kyiv agree to a dirty deal with a mendacious aggressor to trade land for temporary non-war?

Until Putin, better prepared, attacks again because, given the misery in his country, he needs a "success" even more urgently?

After the Budapest Memorandum has proved worthless and the West shies away from direct confrontation with Moscow, what international guarantees should Kyiv trust?

What a "face-saving compromise" between Kyiv and the Kremlin should look like remains the secret of those who are demanding it.

Don't expect Putin to voluntarily give up the territories he conquered.

David in Kyiv, however, believes more than ever that he can drive the Russian Goliath out of – the entire – country if the West supplies tanks instead of slingshots.

Alice Schwarzer and her pen pals will not advise against it

So the war over Ukraine could last a long time.

Putin may be counting on Kiev's resilience dwindling and western democracies becoming war-weary faster than the Russians he incited.

In any case, if the Kremlin offers a ceasefire, Alice Schwarzer and her pen pals will hardly advise the Ukrainians against accepting it, no matter where the front line is: Isn't anything better than continuing the war with the danger of escalation?

With the wave of the nuclear whip, Putin has been able to stop the West from unreservedly supporting Ukraine.

If the KGBer in the Kremlin follows an old Soviet recipe, then he next serves up the carrot of peace.

In his case, of course, you can't trust anything.