“Angela Merkel’s Five Mistakes That Led to the War in Ukraine”

In particular, analysts recall how the ex-Chancellor of Germany in 2008 vetoed Ukraine’s accession to NATO.

Former German chancellor Angela Merkel admitted during her tenure five mistakeswho “paved the way for the war in Ukraine.”

This point of view was voiced by the journalist of The Wall Street Journal in Germany, Bojan Panchevski, in his article, writes BILD.

First of all the analyst focuses on the fact that during Merkel’s tenure as head of the German government, Germany became dependent on Russian gas supplies. She became one of the key persons who made the German economy and the economies of neighboring countries dependent on energy imports from the Russian Federation. Even after the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, Merkel did not refuse to buy Russian energy resources, but, on the contrary, advocated doubling the import of “blue fuel” from Russia through the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

Second mistake Merkel is interconnected with the first. We are talking about a hasty decision to abandon nuclear energy after the Fukushima accident. As a result, it became necessary to look for cheap energy, which the German government began to buy from Moscow.

Third mistake. Merkel did not draw “red lines” for Putin after the Kremlin annexed Crimea. According to former US Security Council officer Fiona Hill, Kyiv was disappointed that Berlin was negotiating Crimea with Russia – “the Kremlin was not threatened with serious punishment for the occupation.”

By continuing economic cooperation with the Russian Federation, Merkel “contributed to Moscow’s large-scale offensive,” Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former Secretary General of the North Atlantic Alliance, in turn, believes.

Another mistake Merkel made as Chancellor was military budget cutswhich led to problems in the German army. In particular, Berlin ignored NATO agreements to invest 2% of its GDP in defense.

In conclusion, the material recalls how Merkel in 2008 at the NATO summit in Bucharest vetoed for the accession of Ukraine and Georgia to the Alliance. Instead, she helped ensure that Kyiv and Tbilisi received a non-binding invitation from the military-political bloc.

Recall that the Office of the President of Ukraine subjected criticism Merkel’s recent statement, in which she urged “not to hiss” at those who are in favor of negotiations with the Kremlin. Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Presidential Office, directly noted that it was the ex-chancellor who was largely responsible for the dependence on Russian energy resources, in which Europe had long lived.

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Author: Artem Malinovsky