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Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she had worked hard to prevent the situation in Ukraine from turning into a full-blown conflict.
Speaking in the first interview since stepping down as chancellor, Merkel said on June 7 that she felt “great sadness” that German-French efforts over the Minsk peace deal with Russia did not work, but she did not blame herself.
“Diplomacy is not wrong for the fact that it did not work. “So I do not understand why I should say it was a mistake and apologize for it.” she said during the interview for ARD.
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.
She said the attack on Ukraine was a big mistake and wondered what she could have done differently.
“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.” she said.
Merkel said she was against the plan to allow Ukraine to join NATO because it wanted to avoid an escalation with Russia and because Ukraine was not ready to join the alliance.
She also said she had not been naive about the “hatred” of Russian President Vladimir Putin for the model of Western democracy, saying she had warned her colleagues several times that Putin wanted to divide the European Union.
Merkel was Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021.
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