According to Jörn Leonhard, a historian and professor at the University of Freiburg, any concessions or asymmetric compromises toward Vladimir Putin will not yield benefits. He believes that Russia can only be stopped by clearly defined "red lines" and a reliable deterrent mechanism.
Leonhard draws this conclusion from the Potsdam Conference held 80 years ago. There, Stalin misjudged the weakness of Western democracy, but the coordinated position of the U.S. and Britain played a crucial role.
The historian emphasizes that after 1945, many wars ended not with an official peace treaty but with a fragile truce or a UN resolution. He suggests that a similar scenario could repeat in the war in Ukraine: it is not unlikely that Russia may attempt another attack after a temporary truce.
He also highlights the erosion of international law and the changing nature of wars—a complex situation where interstate conflicts are mixed with civil, ethnic tensions, and cyberattacks.
