No going it alone.

red lines.

turning point.

guarantee power.

Anyone who wanted to could play buzzword bingo with statements by Chancellor Olaf Scholz on the Ukraine war.

Some terms are so diligently passed around that they can no longer be viewed in isolation from his person.

Kai Spanke

Editor in the Feuilleton.

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In February 2022, Scholz used the expression "turning point" to refer to the suddenly fragile post-war order. With the warning against "going it alone", he underlined that Germany would not provide any tanks for Ukraine, certainly not without an agreement with allied countries.

Now this red line has been shifted, because the federal government is supplying the Ukraine with infantry fighting vehicles of the "Marder" type.

Agreement was reached with the United States and France, it was soon heard.

However, only after Emmanuel Macron could not pull himself together and hastily announced that he would equip Volodymyr Zelenskyy's troops with light battle tanks.

Depending on one's point of view, Germany is presented as either a constantly hesitating skeptic or a level-headed, calculating strategist. Apart from such assessments, questions arise: Is this what the Federal Republic of Germany's military leadership role, as demanded by Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht, looks like?

Are these models that will soon be ready for use?

Will the “Leopard” main battle tank follow the “Marder” infantry fighting vehicle?

The location on the ground

A very disciplined group of guests discussed these things at Maybrit Illner's, who for an hour performed the balancing act between retrospect, diagnosis and speculation.

For example, it was said that until recently the delivery of tanks had been a "terrible escalation" for Scholz, that Ukraine was in massive distress, that the security order in Europe was in jeopardy, and that a stalemate would be tantamount to a disaster.

Norbert Röttgen (CDU), whose opinion on the statements of the other guests was consistently readable from his mimic repertoire, made the following finding: Things are not going well between France and Germany, Scholz is very much going it alone, the allies are slowly no longer finding it acceptable, just before Germany's isolation became obvious, the Chancellor gave in on the tank issue - "it will be the same with the Leopard".

Matthias Gebauer from "Spiegel" replied that it was not so much the question of the tanks that was important, but the "situation on the ground".

A significant increase in Russian pressure must be expected in the coming months, because the drafted recruits will then have completed their training.

Political scientist Nicole Deitelhoff agreed with Gebauer that "the situation on the ground" is crucial - and reminded that Russia could use the delivery of tanks as an opportunity for escalation.

Building a strategy on this is nonsensical, however.

Katrin Eigendorf, reporter at ZDF, spoke plainly: "Without arms support, Ukraine is not in a position to ward off this war of aggression, this war of annihilation." Eigendorf got his own picture of the conditions at the front and reported on Ukrainian soldiers who Sometimes just sitting in the trenches with their Kalashnikov and being in the sights of the Russian artillery.

"It really reminds you of the First World War."