Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) does not generally rule out that German soldiers could one day help secure a ceasefire in Ukraine.

He also believes it is right to permanently confiscate frozen Russian state assets amounting to several hundred billion euros and make them available to Kyiv, as he told the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung." A foreign deployment in Ukraine after a ceasefire is possible "only under the umbrella of a collective mandate," i.e., "within the framework of the EU, NATO, or the United Nations," the minister said. While there are "no initiatives" for this so far, he does not rule out that the German government could take such an initiative one day. However, this step cannot be taken "yet."

How a permanent ceasefire in Ukraine can be secured "must first be negotiated." The order is: "First, an immediate 30-day ceasefire to conduct negotiations, as the Europeans are demanding. Then an indefinite ceasefire under the negotiated conditions. This might then also include guarantees." Pistorius added that "at the moment," it is "explicitly not about peacekeeping troops." Asked whether there would be no German soldiers in Ukraine, he replied, "No, I didn't say that." As soon as it is clear "who will secure what under which mandate," a decision will be made "about what task we will assume." Regarding the Kyiv leadership's demand to permanently confiscate the frozen Russian state assets and use them to protect Ukraine, the minister said that "as a citizen of this country," he considered this "good." However, he recognized "that there are many fiscal and legal arguments that cast this idea in a different light." Pistorius thus takes a different stance than Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU), who does not want to confiscate Russian assets. Some experts believe such a step could lead to other countries withdrawing their assets from Europe. Regarding the voluntary military service that the black-red coalition wants to introduce, Pistorius contradicted Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, who had told the FAS shortly before taking office that if it turns out at the end of the year that there are not enough volunteers for the planned expansion of the Bundeswehr, then a compulsory model should be discussed. In response to this demand, Pistorius argued that an evaluation of the current plan before the turn of the year would "make little sense" because the necessary law would "ideally" not come into force until January 1, 2026. However, he did not rule out the possibility of a full-blown military draft later. "In our model, we are initially relying on voluntary participation," he stated. "And if the time comes when we have more capacity available than volunteers, then the decision will be made to make it mandatory."