For how long? – Ukraine war: “Its far from an end”

The whole world has been watching for seven weeks now, wondering: how long will this war last, how long will we have to witness images of horrific massacres? Can millions of refugees ever return home?

Little hope in the end
Bernhard Gruber, a colonel in the General Staff of the Army, sees little hope for a quick end. Tenor: Both combatants would still believe in successes and territorial gains on the fronts. “As long as this is the case, there will be no negotiated solution.” Russia expert Gerhard Mangott from the University of Innsbruck agrees: “Precisely for this reason, we are far from the end.”

Obviously, Russia needs to meet certain minimum targets so that President Vladimir Putin can sell them at home as a success. “These include the permanent conquest of the Donbass and areas to the southeast. Moreover, Ukraine should become neutral.” Things Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has categorically rejected so far.

“Expect months of war”
And even if he himself argued for an end to terror (territorial cessions), this would still have to be approved by referendum. “That’s why I assume that the war will last at least months,” Mangott told the Krone. In addition, the EU and the US had agreed that Russia would not win the war and that Putin would no longer be a negotiating partner. “He’s a leper to the West.” What does that mean for Austria, do frozen fronts mean normalization at some point?

“No, further sanctions are not without consequences for us either,” Mangott alludes to a long-standing refusal of Russian oil, gas and coal. The EU Institute for Security Studies also believes in a war “at least until the summer”. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in Brussels it could take “many months or even years”. Because Putin now wants to “rewrite the international order”.