Two presidents in Eastern Europe are asking Western leaders to resume dialogue with Russia. “Spectacular people of incompetent”
Peter Pellegrini and Zoran Milanovic Photo: Goran Mehkek / Imago Stock & People / Profimedia
Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said on Tuesday that there is no justification for the absence of dialogue between Western leaders and Russia, an opinion shared by his Slovak counterpart Peter Pellegrini, on an official visit to Croatia, the Croatian press agency Hina, taken over by Agerpres.
“There is absolutely no justification for not discussing. What is the diplomacy for the day? For salaries?”, Milanovic said in a common press conference at the headquarters of the Zagreb presidency. He recalled that, even in the era of the Soviet Union, “a communist state that exported revolution and it was a real threat and nuclear power,” there were discussions.
Call for Meloni and Merz
“The whole architecture of trust and distrust has been built to avoid a nuclear war. This is the foundation of international relations: complex and carefully developed. All these have now been destroyed. We can and should look with the finger to Russia, but, on the other hand, we have what I see a generation of spectacular people,”
For his part, Slovak President Pellegrini urged a rapid resolution through peace negotiations and stressed that continuing weapons will not bring peace, adding that “it is not possible to overcome military power like Russia.”
“The end of the war depends on NATO and the United States, if they can find a common ground with Russia and manage to stop the exchange of fire and negotiate a post-war arrangement for Ukraine,” said Pellegrini, mentioning that he would greet such a thinking from EU leaders.
He stressed that leaders like the head of the Italian government, Giorgia Meloni, and the new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz “should go to meet the Russian side and negotiate a war as soon as possible.” “If they do not, we will have to wait to see what the US and Russia agree; or the Union can adopt a more proactive role and start discussions with both belligerent parties,” he said.
Macron discussed the phone with Putin. “Westerners are responsible for the War in Ukraine,” the Kremlin leader told him
“War goes wrong for Ukraine”
Milanovic said that he was on the side of the weaker part in this war, specifying that he refers to the Ukrainian people, not to the Ukrainian government. “The war goes wrong for Ukraine. They do not have enough people and will not remain soon. They will not be able to support this rhythm for a long time,” Croatian President said.
He added that, although both parties are fighting with organized armies, the Russian army is too small for Moscow's ambitions, which would require three times more soldiers.
“A true dictator would mobilize these people. But Putin is something between. He cannot afford to convene the three million soldiers he needs to win this war. He works with what he has – an more or less professional army. The Ukrainian army is a popular army, based largely on mobilization,” he often worked.
Pellegrini also stated that this human resource is slowly exhausted and, at one point, it will cease, but not in the way some in Europe imagines or made the Ukrainians believe.
Pellegrini also said that Slovakia cannot be criticized for its position on peace negotiations, especially given how much it contributed to Ukraine in relation to the size of its economy, giving as an example military equipment for air defense, supply of electricity and gas and humanitarian aid. He rejected any comparison between Slovakia and Hungary in terms of divergence on EU policy, stressing that these two states have very different positions.
