German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius says he sees no evidence that Russia genuinely wants to end its war against Ukraine. In an interview with the German media group RND published on January 31, 2026, he pointed to the wave of Russian strikes launched while US-led peace negotiations were taking place in Abu Dhabi.
“So far, I see no signs that Russia seriously wants peace,” Pistorius said.
Attacks during the talks
Pistorius said that while negotiators met in Abu Dhabi, Russia bombarded Ukraine with an intensity “hardly seen in this war.” He rejected Moscow’s claims that it avoids civilian targets, describing the strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, in temperatures as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius, as “terror directed exclusively at the civilian population.”
He said Vladimir Putin continues to cling to maximalist demands and has shown no willingness to compromise, although he acknowledged that US President Donald Trump has brought new momentum to diplomacy.
Doubts over the energy pause
The interview came as a short-lived pause in strikes took shape. On January 30, Trump said he had asked for a week-long halt to attacks, and the Kremlin confirmed it would hold off strikes on Kyiv until February 1. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a de facto “week without strikes” on energy infrastructure began that night.
Pistorius was skeptical. If Putin were serious, he said, Russia would have stopped attacks across the whole country rather than only around Kyiv during a cold snap. He said he had “serious doubts that Moscow takes this pause in attacks even remotely seriously.”
Berlin’s message
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has argued that the key to ending the war lies in Moscow, and that Russia will only show readiness to compromise when it sees clear and unwavering support for Ukraine from Europe and the West.
Sources
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