‘Europe seems invested in war’: As Merz demonises Putin, Ex Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal warns of no way back

Former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal has sharply criticised what he described as “excessive rhetoric” from European leaders against Russia, warning that such language risks locking Europe into a path of prolonged confrontation.

In a post on social media, Sibal said the tone adopted by European capitals reflected a “developing sense of desperation” and cautioned that walking back from the “demonisation of Putin and Russia” could soon become “politically impossible” for European leaders.

“Europe seems invested in war,” he wrote, adding that the trajectory was “worrisome for the non-Western world,” which, he argued, benefits from a stable and peaceful Europe capable of contributing to global prosperity.

Sibal’s remarks come amid increasingly forceful statements from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has adopted one of the toughest positions in Europe against Moscow.

At the Munich Security Conference last week, Merz said the war in Ukraine would end only when Russia is “at least economically, potentially militarily, exhausted,” and stressed that Europe must show “firmness and determination” as its freedom is “no longer a given” .

He described the gathering at the conference as a seismograph for the US-European relations. He added that the Ukraine war “had forced Europe to return from a vacation from world history”. 

Moreover, French President Emmanuel Macron said that any peace settlement must protect Ukraine, preserve European security and disincentivise Russia from attempting another invasion while not providing the world with a “calamitous example to follow”. 

Britain also said that it would send weapons worth £540 million to Ukraine, including spending £150 million on buying US-made interceptors. The remaining £390 million would be spent on supplying 1,000 lightweight multirole missiles (LMMs) manufactured in Belfast to strengthen Ukraine’s air defences. 

This, however, was not it as Merz recently said that reason and humanitarian arguments would not convince Putin to end the war. 

Citing American-French historian Astolphe de Custine, he said, “We are currently experiencing this country in a state of profound barbarity. Our European goal is to prevent the Russian state from continuing the war militarily and from financing it economically. Reason and humanitarian arguments will not convince Putin.”

Around 200 years back, the American-French historian said, “Russia is, in our time, the strangest country for the observer, because in it one finds the deepest barbarity alongside the highest civilization.”