En 2008, Angela Merkel refused to start the process of admitting Ukraine into NATO. Monday, April 4, faced with criticism from current President Volodymyr Zelensky who regretted the “absurd fear” shown by certain leaders at the time, the former Chancellor defended her refusal. The former German official, who left politics at the end of 2021, affirms, in a short statement published by her spokesperson, that she “assumes her decisions from the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest”.
In a video message on Sunday evening, Volodymyr Zelensky had criticized NATO’s “hidden refusal” in 2008 to welcome Ukraine into its ranks because of the “absurd fear of certain political leaders with regard” to Moscow. The latter “thought that by rejecting Ukraine, they could appease Russia”, criticized the Ukrainian president. Volodymyr Zelensky also suggested to Angela Merkel, today without official function, as well as to the former French president Nicolas Sarkozy to go to Boutcha, a town northwest of kyiv recently taken over by the Ukrainians, where many civilians were killed. “I invite Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy to visit Boutcha and to see what the policy of concessions towards Russia has led to”, launched Volodymyr Zelensky.
“In view of the atrocities uncovered in Bucha and other places in Ukraine, all efforts by the government and the international community to stand with Ukraine and end Russia’s barbarism and war against Ukraine have the full support of the former Chancellor,” Angela Merkel’s spokesperson replies in her message. The Chancellor, who remained at the head of Germany for 16 years, has hardly spoken since the start of the conflict in Ukraine.
Zelensky doesn’t ‘blame’ the West
A few months after her departure from power, at the height of her popularity, she is now being criticized for having lacked firmness towards President Vladimir Putin and her policy towards Russia is the subject of severe criticism. involved, including in his camp. The conservative leader, who governed for several years with the Social Democrats in a grand coalition, is also criticized for making Germany dependent on Russian gas, which before the war accounted for more than half of the country’s imports. .
At the NATO summit in Bucharest, in April 2008, Germany spoke out against the launch of the accession process for Ukraine and Georgia, a position shared by President Sarkozy, considering that it were not stable enough democracies. “We don’t blame the West. We blame no one other than the Russian military (…) and those who gave them orders,” Volodymyr Zelensky added in his message on Sunday evening.
Consult our file: War in Ukraine
