According to Politico , the German government is increasingly discussing the possibility of offering Ukraine an alternative to NATO membership — a neutral status similar to Finland during the Cold War. This idea arose against the background of long discussions regarding the potential accession of Ukraine to the Alliance and the threat from Russia. The option of neutrality, which Finland chose during the Cold War, involves the refusal of membership in any military-political blocs.
Berlin believes that this is the only way to convince Putin to start peace talks.
However, Finland itself, which recently joined NATO, opposes such a scenario. Kai Sauer, the Finnish ambassador in Berlin warned:
It is not in our interests to restore some artificial spheres of interest. Finland's Cold War model of neutrality belongs to a period of history that should have been freed from long ago.
