Putin has sent flowers to Merkel in the past.Image: Flip the Sputnik website
President Volodymyr Zelensky has criticized Russia’s atrocities in the town of Bucha as the result of German and French concessions to Russia 14 years ago. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has defended her 2008 decision to oppose Ukraine’s membership of NATO, rejecting criticism that Russia’s aggression over Ukraine had clouded her 16-year German rule.
The Ukrainian military regained control of the town of Butcha on the 2nd. Authorities revealed that 280 bodies were found in a mass grave, and they accused the Russian army of lynching 50 of the more than 300 bodies found following the Russian army retreated. Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said the authorities found 410 civilian bodies in the area around the capital Kyiv, which was recaptured from the Russian army. Zelensky said bluntly that Butcha’s killing would be considered a “genocide” by international leaders.
According to the Ukrinform news agency, Zelensky mentioned in his conversation that the NATO summit held in Bucharest, Romania’s capital, from April 2 to 4, 2008, had the opportunity to bring Ukraine away from the The “grey zone” between NATO and Russia, which takes away from the “grey zone” where Russia believes it can do whatever it wants, possibly even commit war crimes, but NATO’s only optimistic diplomatic statement “suggests” Ukraine might become a NATO member.
However, the statement at the time was actually a refusal to admit Ukraine to join. Some politicians had ignorant fears regarding Russia, thinking that refusing Ukraine to join NATO would appease Russian President Vladimir Putin and convince Russia to respect Ukraine and coexist peacefully with Ukraine . Zelensky noted that during the 14 years of that miscalculation, Ukraine went through a revolution, fought an eight-year war in the Donbass, and is now in the most horrific war in Europe since World War II. fight for life,
Zelensky continued that the decision of Germany and France to lead countries to disapprove Ukraine’s membership at the NATO summit in Bucharest at the NATO summit in Bucharest was a “miscalculation”. “I invited Merkel and (former French president) Nicolas Sarkozy to visit the town of Butcha to see what their policy of concessions to Russia has led to 14 years later, to see for themselves those who have been Tortured Ukrainian men and women.”
Zelensky stated that Ukraine does not blame the West or anyone, but only the Russian military for cruelty to the Ukrainian people, and those who gave the order, but Ukraine has the right to discuss how the “indecision” of the Western countries at the time led to today’s Ukrainian people. Calamity, but whether Ukraine is allied with any group or not, Ukraine understands that “we must be strong”.
In a brief statement from her spokeswoman, Merkel stressed that she stood by “decisions related to the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest” over Zelensky’s accusation that the position taken by European leaders 14 years ago was to appease Russia. The spokesman added: “In view of the atrocities exposed in the town of Butcha and elsewhere in Ukraine, all efforts by the government and the international community to support Ukraine and seek to end Russia’s atrocities and wars once morest Ukraine have been supported by the former prime minister. Full support.”
Merkel, who served as German chancellor for four consecutive terms, resigned from politics at the end of last year and was once hailed as the leader of the free world, but the Russian invasion of Ukraine exposed her lack of performance. While Germany decided Ukraine joined NATO in 2008 too early because the political conditions did not exist at the time, critics say her policy of de-escalation towards Russia left Germany and Europe vulnerable.
