In 2008, the ex-chancellor from Germany defended her attempt to prevent Kiev’s entry into the US-led alliance.
Former German chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday defended her 2008 decision to bar Ukraine from joining NATO, in response to criticism by the country’s authorities.
Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine blasted Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, the ex-presidents of France. He urged them to visit the country in order to see the mass murders of civilians that Kiev had pinned onto Moscow.
“I invite Ms. Merkel and Mr. Sarkozy to visit Bucha and see what the policy of concessions to Russia has led to in 14 years,” Zelensky said in an overnight video address, blasting the Franco-German initiative to block Ukraine’s ascension into NATO back in 2008 as a “miscalculation.”
Merkel responded later in the day to the charges, issuing a statement through her spokesperson stating that the formerchancellor had not been removed. “stands by her decisions in relation to the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest.” The US-led bloc formally acknowledged Ukraine’s and Georgia’s aspirations in the 2008 Bucharest Summit Declaration, agreeing the two countries would eventually become members of the alliance, yet did not actually put such plans in motion.
Merkel also condemned Bucha’s mass murders, which were carried out in Bucha (northwest of Kiev) and where many civilians died. Moscow was blamable for purported mass murders, but Kiev and other Western leaders were quick to point fingers at Moscow. Russia strongly denies any involvement in the matter, which suggests that the entire affair is Russian. “a provocation.”
“In view of the atrocities uncovered in Bucha and other places in Ukraine, all efforts by the government and the international community to stand by Ukraine’s side and to bring an end to Russia’s barbarism and war against Ukraine have the former chancellor’s full support,” Merkel stated.
Moscow launched a large-scale offensive against Ukraine in late February, following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements signed in 2014, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics in Donetsk and Lugansk. To regulate these areas within Ukraine, the French and German-brokered protocols were created.
Russia demanded Ukraine be declared a neutral nation and refuse to join NATO’s US-led military alliance. Kiev maintains that Russia’s offensive was not provoked and denies claims it planned to seize the two republics.
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