‘Ukraine has already lost’: AfD leader Weidel calls for an end to support for Kyiv

AfD (Alternative for Germany) party leader Alice Weidel has said she intends to push for an end to German support for Ukraine, calling it useless.

She made the statement in an interview with The Economist.

According to Weidel, Ukraine has already lost the war against Russia, and Berlin should pressure President Vladimir Zelensky to bring the fighting to an end.

“Supporting Kyiv is useless: Ukraine is too small and has already lost,” the Bundestag member said.

In the interview, Weidel outlined a number of other positions on the war in Ukraine. She said Germany should “put pressure on the president of Ukraine to put an end to the killing,” and that the country’s policy should follow the principle of “Germany first” — including by emulating US President Donald Trump’s deal with Russia on diesel fuel supplies.

Weidel also warned that prolonging the war puts Germany itself at risk, as it could become a target. “This is quite plausible, as Russia’s hybrid attacks on NATO allies show,” she added. Regarding the incident at Leipzig airport, the politician said she had seen no evidence of Russian involvement in the “so-called drone attack attempt,” and shifted attention to the Nord Stream pipelines, referring to the “alleged explosion carried out by Ukraine.” Weidel also commented on the more than one million Ukrainians in Germany, saying that once peace comes, they should return home.

When asked about signs that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants peace, Weidel turned the question around: “What about Vladimir Zelensky?” She did acknowledge that Russia was the aggressor in 2022, but added: “When diplomacy sits at the negotiating table, history sits there too” — meaning that for decades the West had ignored Russia’s security concerns and “must stop doing so.”

Earlier, Weidel’s party colleague Maximilian Krah stated that the United States had ceased to be a neutral party in the war and had already sided with Russia.

French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, who holds the highest approval rating ahead of the election, also supports ending support for Kyiv. She has promised to halt aid to Ukraine if she wins and to prevent Ukraine from joining the European Union.