“Make peace!” or in German “Frieden schaffen!” members of the Social Democratic party and former leading trade unionists say in a joint appeal, through a new open letter published on Sunday in the Frankfurter Rundschau and Berliner Zeitung newspapers.

“The war in Ukraine has turned into a war of the trenches, from which there are only losers,” reads the letter, which is co-signed by historian Peter Brandt, son of the iconic Social Democrat chancellor Willy Brandt, former head of the Social Democrats Frank-Walter Borjans, among others , the former Speaker of the House Wolfgang Thierze, the former Minister of Finance Hans Eichel, but also the former European Commissioner Gunder Verheugen as well as prominent members of the Evangelical Church and German arts and letters.

Chancellor Olaf Solz, they say in the open letter, should make efforts for mediation and a quick truce together with France but also countries such as China, India, Brazil or even Indonesia. As they characteristically note, instead of domination by military means “the language of diplomacy and peace is required”

Discontent of the Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin

However, the reaction of the Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin, Oleksii Makeyev, was immediate and strong, stating in his statements to the German news agency that “this appeal is not an April Fool’s joke” but “open cynicism” towards the victims of Russian aggression in his country.
As he notes, using harsh language, such appeals have the effect of “covering up Russian crimes” and the responsibility of Russian President Vladimir Putin. For him, the appeal must be one: “Mr. Putin immediately withdraw your troops from the assembly of the Ukrainian territory!”.