“My solidarity is with Ukraine, which was attacked and invaded by Russia, and I support its right to self-defense,” Merkel said during the Berlin farewell of influential German trade unionist Reiner Hoffmann.
Merkel said she is reluctant to comment on current events now that she is no longer in office. Still, the four-time chancellor expressed her support for the efforts of the current German government, the EU, the US, NATO, the G7 and the UN “to ensure that this barbaric war of aggression by Russia is stopped.”
Human rights violations
Merkel spoke about the human rights violations committed against civilians in Ukraine. “Butsha is representative of this horror,” she said, among other things, referring to the massacre that happened in early March in a suburb of Kiev.
She said the consequences of the war would be far-reaching, especially for Ukrainians, but also for the continent. A small glimmer of hope “in this unending sorrow” sees the former head of state in the enormous support for Ukrainians that neighboring countries such as Poland and Moldova have shown . And: “we should never take peace and freedom for granted,” Merkel said.