Putin’s supposed willingness to negotiate - and the reality from just now, a night in which residential buildings burn

Again one of those nights in which Ukraine is burning while elsewhere people speculate whether Putin is suddenly ready to negotiate. In Kyiv, Russian drones, missiles and ballistic weapons struck completely ordinary residential neighborhoods. Nine districts reported damage, at least five high residential buildings were hit. One man is dead, seven people are injured, including a child. That is the reality - not the talk about “signals” or “willingness”.

The attacks did not target military infrastructure but people in their homes. Families who were asleep. Children who had just started school. People who simply wanted to survive while the alarm outside was sounding. Russia does not do this secretly. Russia does it because it is sure the world allows it. What should one think of negotiations that even deserve that name when in the same night facades are burning, stairwells collapse and rescue workers try to pull residents from upper floors while the fire department below tries to contain the flames? Anyone who sees such images hears the word “willing to negotiate” in a completely different way. It is absurd to pretend there is suddenly a door that has opened. The only door that opened tonight was the door of a burning residential building in which people tried to make their way through the smoke to get outside.

Nine districts of Kyiv lie in ruins, five high-rise buildings are damaged, one person is dead. That is Putin’s answer - not some diplomatic phrase that circulates in press conferences the next day. Anyone who wants to know how serious Russia is about negotiations only has to look at this night and many others before it. There are no further answers.

Meanwhile, Alice Weidel presented herself on television at ntv as a kind of political clairvoyant who allegedly always knew where things were heading. She sits there as if doing the country a favor by explaining that Trump and Putin are now implementing what the AfD has been demanding for years. Then Mrs. Weidel should quickly pack a few things and head to Kyiv. Not much can happen, if one believes her attitude, thanks to diplomacy. A word that urgently needs to be explained to her. With this she adopts exactly those arguments that Moscow has been using for years to play Europe against itself. Instead of showing solidarity with a country that has been attacked, she questions its right to exist and sells that as sober analysis, as if Putin’s war of aggression were merely a communication problem. The only real problem visible today on ntv, however, was another: Alice Weidel and an AfD that are simply completely unqualified for government responsibility.