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In her first interview since leaving office, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel defended her policy towards Russia and made it clear that she does not blame herself at all for the situation in Ukraine.
Merkel said she felt “great sadness” that German-French efforts over the Minsk peace deal with Russia did not work. However, she insisted to ARD that she was not naive about the Russian president and that “diplomacy can not be wrong for the fact that it did not work.”
“I do not understand why I should say it was wrong and apologize for it. “I do not know what would have happened if Putin had simply done what he wanted in 2014, without anyone putting water on the fire.” said Merkel.
The Minsk peace agreements, reached in 2014 and 2015, were aimed at resolving the conflict in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian government forces.
The leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France met under the so-called Normandy Format, calling for an end to the conflict. But these pacts were not fully implemented. Speaking about the current situation, Merkel said that there is no excuse for “brutal disregard for international law” by Russia.
“Could we have done more to prevent this, which I now call a great tragedy? “So you keep asking why, and of course I keep asking those questions.” said Merkel.
The former chancellor stated that she was against the idea of Ukraine’s membership in NATO, precisely in order to avoid an escalation of the situation with Russia, as well as the fact that this country was not ready to join the military alliance.
President Zelensky is fighting corruption today, but at that time Ukraine was ruled by oligarchs, and we could not bring it closer. It was not Ukraine we know today, but a very, very politically divided country, she said.
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