The German journalist who is a volunteer in Ukraine, Christian Gruber, in an interview for The Geopost, spoke about the situation in Ukraine, the Russian influence in the EU and the EU’s support for Ukraine.
Gruber believes that the only way for the war to end is for Western countries to support Ukraine in winning it.
He says that the European Union states are not doing enough to support Ukraine.
Below you can find Christian Gruber’s full interview with The Geopost:
The Geopost: Russian Influence in EU before and after the invasion in Ukraine
Gruber: We have some big problems in the EU with the influence of Russia, before the war and still now.
I see three main problems. The first one is that we are not really independent in context of gas and oil. So many countries in Europe still need Russia and they don’t take care for any advantages. This is the first and I think the biggest influence which Russia can take in the EU.
Second one, I se Russian medias as Russia Today, they have a big audience especially which I know and the German government takes to much time to get rid of it. So for now, it is forbidden for Russia Today to send in public on public television but they still send on the internet and social media and there are lots of followers in Germany. We have lots of people that believe in conspiracy theories and that are connected on this Russian propaganda media.
For example, Russia Today made a big campaign against vaccination of Covid and also spread some fake news about Covid. And many Germans believed it and now they have the connection between this anti vaccination campaign and now Ukraine war. The Germans that believe the anti vaccination of Russia Today are still now more open to believe some fake news Russia spread about the war in Ukraine.
And then we have the third topic of influence from Russia in the EU, the influence in politicians. We see it in Germany we have some I would say ‘dirty ears’ between Russian state and German politics.
The good example is in my opinion our chancellor Schröder. He was some years a chancellor in Germany and after he was not voted again he got a pretty good job in Russia and still a buddy of Putin.
Russia works for years to get really good connections to German politicians and still ongoing, I think.
Now, after the official war I would say Russia loses some of its influence. They get some problems because European countries want to get rid of Russian gas and oil, search for alternatives. They also get debunking anti propaganda for spreading fake news, but I think that’s not enough.
A big problem of this is that many European countries are not aware of Russian influence in the EU. There was a report last year from the EU and it says that many countries don’t even know about Russian influence. For example, the Russian state pays the left wing and right wing parties in the EU but the governments of these countries don’t look at it and are not aware of this problem.
The Geopost: Is EU, especially Germany, helping Ukraine in this war?
Gruber: I think every help (financial help, military help) is help for Ukraine. In my opinion, a better question can be if we are doing enough. We have some interesting numbers which were published by a German institute and it shows huge lack between the things that were promised by German government and the things that actually get delivered to Ukraine.
So Germany right now has only 35% of its promised help delivered. Most of the European countries don’t do enough. Right now, Ukraine needs heavy weapons systems, it needs a training on the systems.
I know that Germany has a lot of weapons they can deliver or can sell about Armory production.
There are weapons in Europe countries which can help Ukraine. The companies want to deliver them and of course to sell them to Ukraine but the governments deny these requests.
In my words, financial help, humanitarian aids for refugees in Europe countries is really important and it’s good that Europe countries do so much for these people and for this country. But maybe they should ask themselves if they have to change the focus so Ukraine would win the war. Because every day this war is ongoing there is more suffering in Ukraine.
The Geopost: Is there any reason that the governments won’t let the companies donate or sell these weapons to Ukraine?
Gruber: It’s not very clear because answers of this question change very often in Germany. First of all, the German answer was that there is not enough time to train Ukrainian soldiers with the systems. But now the war is ongoing for four months and I think the war will go on for few more months. So there is enough time. This answer from Germany was not true I think.
The second answer was that the delivery from these weapon systems can lead to the point where Germany will be part of this war and the German government don’t want that.
I also don’t believe that the delivery of this weapon systems will lead to a point that Germany will be an active part of this war.
Some weeks ago, there was a saying in our Ministry of Defense from one politician that said that there was a NATO formal agreement that Western countries won’t deliver weapons. But it was actually a lie because many of countries denied this.
So, right now I am not sure why Germany is not delivering all what it said.
I think Germany has a history with Russia together and also an economic history from the last 20 years.
And I’m thinking that many politicians in Germany want to stop the war really fast with a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine and after this I think they want to go ahead, like before the war. They don’t want to be too much trouble for the Russian state because it can lead to some problems for the relations after the war.
The Geopost: How do you think European citizens see Putin now? As a aggressor or as a dictator?
Gruber: I think in the public discourse, on social media or on the streets, newspapers, is totally clear that Putin is an aggressor of this war and we don’t read much about him being a dictator or something else.
But as the war is going on, I read a lot of articles that say Putin will lead Russia to a fascist state. I think this is the way were Russia under Putin goes on. And I believe mos of the EU citizens see it in the same way.
We have not so many people who agree with Putin and his attack on Ukrainian state. But you still have some Russian narratives about Ukraine. We have many Germans which still believe that a part of the military in Ukraine are full of nazis. But that is not true.
So, I think a big task for us is to get rid of these Russian narratives. To show the people in EU countries that it is not like Russia.
The Geopost: How do you see the ending of the war in Ukraine? How’s the situation in Lviv and Kyiv?
Gruber: The situation in Lviv and Kyiv are quite similar. U have a lot of civilians here, many refugees from the East and they just try their best to make some type of normal life. The shops are open. Of course, there are problems with some supplies. But it looks like we are in normal situation most of the time.
In Kyiv, it is a little bit more special. If you go out of Kyiv, like 10 km or 20 km in direction of Bucha or Irpin or the surrounding villages that have been occupied by Russian soldiers, you’ll see lots of suffering, you’ll see a lot of destroyed buildings and houses. There are many people that need humanitarian aid, many traumatized people. For example, I was in a small village, to make an interview with one of the survivors. It was an old woman, I think about 80 years old, she still lives in the bombed house and she shows me where they found her dead neighbors. She is traumatized and she doesn’t get the help that she needs because in some kind there are not enough supplies.
So yes, Kyiv now is a good place for living. Not a safe place. Some days ago a rocket hit the city again. But for most of the time it’s safe. But just 20 km away from Kyiv and see all of this destroying and not enough money to re buy anything , still in fears that Russia will push again in the direction of Kyiv. It’s brutal.
And what I think about end of this war or how long will be ongoing, I can say I don’t see any peace in a short time period. I see that Russia still moves troops to Ukraine. The Russian offensive is slow but it is still going on. And they will not stop, Donbas region will fall. The only way to stop this war is to help Ukraine win this war. How long will it will going it depend on the Western allies of Ukraine.
The Geopost: Is NATO ready to protect Baltic states?
Gruber: I think overall, NATO is ready for this. We see a lot of troop movement to EU countries from America for example. We see lots of equipment that is delivered to these countries to protect these countries. We see new contracts in the Baltic states. But also, not every NATO ally is ready for it. Germany, for example, is not ready for a war. I think that there are a few NATO countries that give more money to the army and has to look to make it more efficient. I am not sure how close can we be between a Russia war with NATO but in case of war some NATO countries will be more helpful than others.