Calls growing for German government to launch peace initiative for Ukraine

BERLIN

Over 600,000 Germans have signed a petition calling for an end to delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine, urging Chancellor Olaf Scholz to lead diplomatic efforts for a cease-fire and peace negotiations.

The petition, co-authored by Left Party lawmaker Sahra Wagenknecht and feminist author Alice Schwarzer two weeks ago, gathered 607,000 signatures as of Thursday on change.org website.

Gunter Verheugen, the former vice president of the European Commission; Erich Vad, a former brigadier general; journalists Franz Alt and Gisela Marx; politicians Oskar Lafontaine and Jurgen Todenhofer, and political scientists Hajo Funke and Ulrike Guerot were among the first signatories of the petition.

“Supported by the West, Ukraine can win individual battles. But it cannot win a war against the world’s largest nuclear power,” the authors said in the petition and underlined that “neither side can win militarily” and the war can only end at the negotiating table.

“Negotiating does not mean surrendering. Negotiating means making compromises on both sides with the aim of preventing hundreds of thousands more deaths and worse,” they stressed.

The petition called on Chancellor Olaf Scholz to stop the escalation of arms deliveries to Ukraine and start a diplomatic initiative to reach a cease-fire and begin peace negotiations as soon as possible.

“Because every lost day costs up to 1,000 more human lives – and brings us closer to a third world war,” the authors of the petition said.