Head of the Department Prof. Erika de Wet, LL.M. (Harvard) was a guest on the Ö1 podcast “Krieg und Frieden,” where she spoke about the possibilities for ending the war in Ukraine. She painted a sobering picture.
She considers the deployment of NATO troops as monitors to be inconceivable. A realistic scenario, she said, would be a frozen conflict based on the Cypriot model: UN troops in a buffer zone, backed by a Security Council resolution, without recognizing the occupied territories as Russian territory—not a good option, but one of the less bad ones. China’s role would be decisive in this regard. The balance of power has shifted dramatically, and Europe must not drive Russia even further into Beijing’s arms. The planned special tribunal against Putin will, at best, result in convictions in absentia; extradition is not realistic. With Ukraine’s accession to the EU, things are moving in the right direction again after the Orbán era—but there is still a long way to go.
Ö1, Krieg und Frieden, Aus Schutt und Asche: Die Ukraine von morgen (2/17), June 25th, 2026, Link (in German)