Strack-Zimmermann recalled that in 2008, when many NATO member states advocated early membership of Ukraine, Germany and France held back out of respect for Russia’s position.
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She said that Ukrainians’ failure to join NATO was “a big mistake made by the French and Angela Merkel at the time”.
The German official also said that after Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, Berlin should have sided with Kiev and supported it with arms, but “Angela Merkel’s history needs to be rewritten, especially the history of recent years and the complete miscalculations.”
Read also: Scholz sends German tanks to war for the first time in 78 years and asks the Germans to trust him
She said she doesn’t believe Russia’s war against Ukraine will last as long as the 20e Century World Wars.
“This war certainly won’t last four or five years,” she said.
Russia’s war on Ukraine began in February 2014, with initial invasions of first Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and then parts of Ukraine’s Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts. The war has been going on for more than nine years.
Strack-Zimmermann said Russian dictator Vladimir Putin had not counted on their broad and continued support for Ukraine.
At the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest, Germany and France blocked a NATO membership action plan for Ukraine and Georgia. Merkel and then French President Nicolas Sarkozy opposed it out of respect for Russia and fear of escalation by Moscow.
Six months later, in August 2008, Russia invaded Georgia.
Read also: German ex-chancellor Merkel says she doesn’t think her government hasn’t done enough to stop Russian aggression
Merkel reiterated her decision to cut Ukraine off from NATO — even after Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022 — when she responded to accusations made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy following the massacre of civilians by Russian soldiers in Kiev Oblast.
Merkel also stated that she does not blame herself for not trying hard enough to prevent Russian aggression against Ukraine.
The former German chancellor has also stated that she has no regrets about her government’s decision to buy large quantities of natural gas from Russia, effectively making Germany dependent on Moscow for energy.
When asked about the Minsk accords, Merkel said it allowed Ukraine to buy time, but admitted she could no longer influence Putin at the end of her term.
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