"Manifesto for Peace": Gregor Gysi shares fake news that has long since been refuted

politics

The call was followed by outrage: After the left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht and the controversial publisher Alice Schwarzer had once again written an open letter, there was a hail of severe criticism. The list of those who first signed this letter is no less explosive.

These include Martin Sonneborn, leader of the satirical party The Party, or the former council chair of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), Margot Käßmann, the CSU politician Peter Gauweiler, the Green politician Antje Vollmer and the singer Reinhard Mey.

Left-wing politician Gregor Gysi also signed this letter. For that, he was severely beaten. On the very day the “Manifesto for Peace” was published, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) said in Berlin: “To all those who say weapons just have to be silent, because then we’ll have peace, I would like to say: what kind of peace is it when you have to live under Russian occupation and worry every day that you will be murdered in cold blood, raped or even kidnapped as a child?”

The journalist Georg Restle also joined in the criticism.

He expressed his disappointment in a tweet. “What kind of peace should these negotiations lead to in the end? What kind of compromise should it be with an aggressor who is obviously not willing to compromise? And the destruction of the cultural identity of the people from the start Ukraine as a war goal?” he asked Twitter.

And Gysi reacted.

In a thirteen-part thread, Gysi writes on Twitter why he Opinion Western arms sales to Ukraine should be stopped immediately. That is the quintessence of Wagenknecht’s open letter.

In fact, Gysi reproduces false reports in his tweet, which have already been refuted by various journalists in several fact checks.

However, Gysi also jumps in directly with an assertion, the content of which is more than questionable. He writes: “In the meantime he (Putin, editor’s note) has understood that the annihilation of the state of Ukraine and the destruction of Ukrainian identity are out of the question.” There is absolutely no evidence that Putin changed his mind or war aim in any way. The Russian President does not address this in any interviews or in any television speeches.

The question of where Gysi got this alleged information from remains unanswered.

In the thread, the left-wing politician also claims that the West deliberately blocked a ceasefire. Gysi writes:

Wagenknecht and the left-wing foreign politician Sevim Dağdelen made such a claim shortly after the start of the war. However, fact checks by ZDF have shown something different.

So it is true: There was at the negotiations between Ukraine and Russia in March 2022 approximations. According to ZDF, Ukraine made an offer to accept neutral status in return for security guarantees. Russia’s offer, on the other hand, was to reduce its troops around Kiev and concentrate militarily on the Donbass.

There is even said to have been a draft agreement on a ceasefire. That was reported at the time “Financial Times”. However, the article, published on March 28, also addresses Ukraine’s doubts about these concessions.

“However, Ukraine and its Western backers remained skeptical of Putin’s intentions and feared that the Russian president could use the talks as a cover to replenish his exhausted military force and plan a new offensive,” it said at the time. At that time the negotiations had not yet ended. A few days later, Ukraine and Russia were to return to the negotiating table in Istanbul.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy (left) with French President Emmanuel Macron.Image: EPA POOL / Mohammed Badra

Important here: At this point in time – i.e. the end of March – the numerous war crimes that Russian soldiers committed against civilians were not yet public.

The peace talks in Istanbul ultimately ended without results. Because even during the talks, the Russian attacks continued unabated – the Ukrainian President therefore expressed his doubts.

Then the atrocities in Bucha were exposed.

A massacre of civilians in a Kiev suburb. rapes. Destruction. More than 400 dead were found.

After these events, Ukraine was no longer able to negotiate.

Exhumed bodies from a mass grave in Bucha.Image: AP / Efrem Lukatsky

The Left, on the other hand, argues with an article published in February of this year in the “Berlin newspaper” was published. It quotes then-Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet as saying that the USA and Great Britain would have blocked a truce, Germany and France were rather pragmatic.

However, this article should be treated with caution.

This is an article that was submitted to the “Berliner Zeitung” as part of an open source initiative. Freelance authors and anyone else can offer texts that the newspaper will publish if interested. The contribution itself does not meet any journalistic requirements. The other side was not questioned here, nor was Bennet questioned critically. Representatives of the USA, Great Britain or even Germany and France had no opportunity to make a statement.

Another statement by Gysi sounds reasonable and appropriate at first, but makes little sense on closer inspection.

Gysi wrote:

However, and this is also the opinion of most peace researchers, certain conditions must be met in order to reach agreements such as the grain agreement. The peace and conflict researcher Anja Dahlmann recently explained this in an interview with watson.

Because the West is currently tightening the economic sanctions further. The EU launched a new package of sanctions in December. And Dahlmann said that there had to be various pressure components in order to get to the negotiating table. “With military, economic and also diplomatic pressure, we can negotiate,” she said.

As soon as the interests of both sides can be satisfied, one sees that negotiations could come about.

Good examples are those that Gysi mentions so carelessly in his tweet: prisoner exchanges, grain agreements.