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European democracy and rule of law are at risk, the general says, so Europe must give Ukraine whatever it can to pressure Moscow, even if Trump does not.
Steven Erlanger, based in Berlin, writes about European security and diplomacy.
Oct. 20, 2025, 5:42 a.m. ET
As President Trump prepares to meet President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in the next few weeks, hoping to find agreement on a cease-fire that Moscow has repeatedly rejected, a senior German general said that unless Russia is stopped in Ukraine, democracy and the rule of law in the rest of Europe will be at severe risk.
“The only reason for Putin to stop is if he is stopped,” said Lt. Gen. Alexander Sollfrank, and that requires pressure. The stakes in Ukraine are fundamental, he said, “if we want to keep our peace and our freedom, and we want to keep our political systems, our democracies, our pluralism, federal structures and everything that we have.”
General Sollfrank is the commander of the German Army’s joint force command — its operational forces in the field — and Germany has been Ukraine’s biggest backer in Europe. He had a similar job at NATO and earlier fought in Afghanistan as commander of a rapid-reaction force that saw serious action. He spoke in an interview last week at his Berlin headquarters.
As Mr. Trump tries again to wrangle Mr. Putin into a cease-fire in Ukraine that Russia does not want without significant Ukrainian concessions of territory, General Sollfrank said that the accomplishments of the postwar world were at risk if Russia prevailed in Ukraine.
The period since the end of World War II has seen the triumph in Germany and more broadly in Central and Eastern Europe of law over power, he said. “If Russia is successful, then these achievements of law, of right over might, are over,” he said. “We should support Ukraine with everything they need,” he said, “with everything they require to reduce the Russian pressure.”
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