For the first time since her retirement in the fall, former Chancellor Merkel spoke publicly again on Tuesday evening. In a packed Berliner Ensemble she spoke with a journalist about her life.
She did think critically about herself and other (former) government leaders who negotiated with Moscow: “We have failed to build a security architecture that prevents that,” Merkel said of the recent invasion of Ukraine.
According to the former chancellor, “In 2008, Ukraine was an oligarch-dominated state and deeply divided. However, President Zelensky is now fighting with incredible courage against corruption.” That the ex-chancellor with appeasement (conciliation policy) would have opened the door to Putin’s warmongering, Merkel does not think. The Minsk agreement she negotiated with Putin, when thousands were killed in Ukraine in clashes with pro-Russian separatists, was not perfect, she said, “but it brought peace to Ukraine. Without Minsk, there was huge damage to Ukraine.”
Merkel says Putin should not allow Ukraine to be as western as democratic Germany. She compared Kiev’s situation to 1956 and 1968, when the Soviet Union forcibly invaded Budapest and Prague.
‘National portal’
Finally, Merkel ruled that Putin “wants to destroy the EU because he sees it as the gateway to NATO.”
The former chancellor strongly condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Merkel said there are no excuses for “this brutal violation of international law.” She believes that countries cannot look back centuries in time to determine which territory belongs to whom. “Then we will only have war.”