{"id":9105,"date":"2025-02-26T14:32:04","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T13:32:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/austausch.org\/?p=9105"},"modified":"2025-02-26T14:32:08","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T13:32:08","slug":"instead-of-nothing-about-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/austausch.org\/en\/2025\/02\/26\/instead-of-nothing-about-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"Instead of “Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine,” we are now hearing “Nothing about Europe without Europe”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Just a week after the world-shaking statements from the new White House administration and Vice President J.D. Vance\u2019s shocking speech at the Munich Security Conference\u2014and right before Germany\u2019s election results\u2014 Austausch e.V.\u2019s First Executive Director Igor Mitchnik gave an interview to Bulgarian media. Read it here <\/a>(behind a paywall).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key takeaways:
\u2023 Trump\u2019s hardline approach fuels global uncertainty. His administration\u2019s strategic ambiguity leaves both allies and adversaries in the dark, further eroding trust in the U.S.
\u2023 Any potential deal imposed by Trump risks undermining the legitimacy of Ukrainian government in the eyes of Ukrainians. More and more Ukrainians are asking, “What have so many people died for?”
\u2023 Territorial concessions remain unrealistic. Russia still claims parts of Ukraine it doesn\u2019t fully control while losing ground in regions like Kursk. A territorial swap is a non-starter for Moscow, which sees itself on the winning side.
\u2023 Germany\u2019s elections are unlikely to significantly alter Germany\u2019s Ukraine policy. Friedrich Merz, once ambivalent, has adopted Scholz\u2019s cautious approach, deferring to European allies instead of making decisive moves\u2014especially on delivering Taurus cruise missiles.
\u2023 However, higher military spending is likely as Germany increasingly frames Ukraine support as a national security priority.
\u2023 The war exposes Russia\u2019s colonial structures. Ethnic minorities are disproportionately mobilized and sent to the frontlines, and some groups among them seem increasingly inclined to support democratic change in Russia.
\u2023 Funding cuts\u2014especially the loss of USAID support\u2014have put civil society in crisis. Yet, civil society remains the backbone of democratic resistance. Continued financial support is crucial for fostering alternative futures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Defending democracy requires investment. With U.S. allies under pressure, Europe and Germany must step up. The era of relying on an American security and financial umbrella is over. The responsibility is now ours\u2014there is no alternative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Austausch e.V.\u2019s First Executive Director Igor Mitchnik gave an interview to Bulgarian media<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6103,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,1,300],"tags":[],"years":[327],"countries":[184,47],"topics":[101],"ppma_author":[321],"class_list":["post-9105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-igor-mitchnik","category-news-en","category-newsletter","years-327","countries-germany","countries-ukraine-en","topics-ukraine"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-30 02:42:09","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"authors":[{"term_id":321,"user_id":6,"is_guest":0,"slug":"igormitchnik","display_name":"Igor Mitchnik","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/austausch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Portrait_Igor-Mitchnik_quadrat.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/austausch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Portrait_Igor-Mitchnik_quadrat.jpg"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":"","9":"","10":"","11":"","12":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/austausch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/austausch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/austausch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austausch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austausch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9105"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/austausch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9106,"href":"https:\/\/austausch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9105\/revisions\/9106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austausch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/austausch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austausch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austausch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9105"},{"taxonomy":"years","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austausch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/years?post=9105"},{"taxonomy":"countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austausch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/countries?post=9105"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austausch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=9105"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austausch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=9105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}