Criticism addressed to Angela Merkel: "You are to blame"

Criticism addressed to Angela Merkel: "You are to blame"

Images of bloodshed with killed civilians in Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv, toured the world. Ukrainian government accuses Russian soldiers of that. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also has serious objections to former German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Zelensky said that he invites the former German Chancellor to visit Bucha to see "where the policy of concessions to Russia in the last 14 years has led".

14 years ago, at the summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Bucharest, first of all Angela Merkel and the then French President Nicolas Sarkozy advocated that Ukraine not receive an invitation to join NATO, so as not to provoke Russia. Today, Zelensky calls it a "wrong calculation" because of which Ukraine is now experiencing "the most terrible war since the Second World War".

North Stream 2 after the annexation of Crimea

Even after the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, the German government under Angela Merkel did not want to deliver weapons to Ukraine. And immediately afterwards, it gave permission for the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which bypasses Ukraine as a transit country for Russian gas. "How can Moscow understand this as tacit approval of violent border changes," said Henning Hoff of the German Foreign Policy Association.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki also addressed Angela Merkel directly: "Madam Chancellor, you have been silent since the beginning of the war. And it is German policy in the last ten or fifteen years that has led Russia to have that power today, based on a monopoly on raw materials". Morawiecki added that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was blocking the decisive sanctions of the European Union.

Angela Merkel and Olaf Scholz are not the only ones currently criticized. In the German newspaper "Tagesspiegel", the Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin accused the President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who was the Minister of Foreign Affairs for a long time, that for him "the attitude towards Russia is something fundamental, even sacred, no matter what happens, even military aggression does not play a big role". Never before in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany has any foreign ambassador attacked the German president so sharply.

Foreign policy as "great self-deception"

The criticism does not refer to individual politicians, but to the overall foreign, security and trade policy of Germany in the last 30 years. "Too much dialogue and too little sharpness towards the Kremlin," Melnik summed up.

This assessment is confirmed by a political scientist from the University of Regensburg, Stefan Birling: "Since German Putin came to power, all German governments have sent signals that unproblematic relations with Moscow are more important to them than Ukraine's fate. That encouraged the Kremlin to attack."

On March 24, in the magazine "Cicero", Birling described the overall German foreign policy of the last few years as "great self-deception". Under the military umbrella of the United States, Germany "indulged in the pacifist illusion" and concentrated on its affairs.

Merkel stands behind the decision that Ukraine has no place in NATO

Apart from one statement after the Russian attack on Ukraine, Angela Merkel remained silent. It is known that she does not regret the decision from 2008 to block Ukraine's path to NATO. She "stands behind her decisions in the context of the summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Bucharest," said one spokeswoman for Angela Merkel.

Her position today is also a position within the Western military alliance. Most countries are happy that they have no obligation to defend Ukraine, since no one wants to be drawn into the war with Russia.

Angela Merkel's successor, Olaf Scholz, also advocates that position. However, something else, until some time ago unthinkable, is now a reality. The German government, with the Social Democratic Chancellor and the Green Deputy Chancellor, is arming the Bundeswehr with large funds and sending weapons to Ukraine as a war zone. It is a “break with a long tradition,” as Scholz admitted on Wednesday.

German mediation is still being sought

Despite the harsh criticism, it cannot be said that German mediation is not sought now.

Although Ukrainian Ambassador Melnik demands weapons from Germany, he also calls on Chancellor Olaf Scholz to mediate more actively between Russia and Ukraine: "Right now we need Chancellor Scholz's personal leadership" for negotiations with Putin, Melnik told Reuters. "That would be a test for Germany's new foreign policy," he added. Melnik called for a reunion of the so-called "Norman Four" - Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine, which was once well initiated by Angela Merkel: "We invite Chancellor Scholz to convene a meeting of the Norman Four in Berlin as soon as possible".

However, Melnik thinks that the format of the talks should be expanded with the participation of Americans, which could be interpreted as a certain distrust of Berlin: "It is clear that we need Americans in the team to speak with one voice and negotiate with Putin from a position of power".