Ukraine's Defence Minister names two reasons why West hesitates to supply all weapons to Ukraine: first reason is connected to Merkel

Oleksii Reznikov, Defense Minister of Ukraine, believes that former German Chancellor Angela Merkel prevented the membership of Ukraine and Georgia in the North Atlantic Alliance in 2008, giving an opportunity for Russia to attack the two countries. 

Source: Reznikov in an interview with the Spanish newspaper La Razon, published on Sunday, 16 April, reports European Pravda.

Answering the question why the West has not yet given Ukraine all the necessary weapons, the minister said that the West "has long lived by the dogma of not provoking Russia," which was especially noticeable during the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest.

"Then there was a very real possibility that Ukraine and Georgia would become new members of the Alliance. Americans were in favour, as were most Europeans. Only German Chancellor Angela Merkel opposed and convinced others, "he recalled.

Reznikov added that after that there were the invasion and occupation of part of Georgia, the occupation of Crimea and parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, as well as explosions in warehouses in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria and poisoning in Salisbury, "and again the same doctrine: do not provoke Russia."

"The second mistake [of the West – ed.] was that they believed that if there was a military clash, then the small Soviet army would oppose a much larger one and be defeated. Well, we are not a Soviet country with a Soviet army," he said.

At the same time, Reznikov said he was now "satisfied" with the level of assistance provided by Germany.

"It took a lot of work to convince them to be bolder, but we did it. I understand their reasons. After the Nuremberg trials, they became a pacifist country, they changed. This can happen to Russia if Nuremberg-2 takes place and war criminals are convicted," the defence minister said.

At the 2008 NATO Bucharest Summit, Germany and France blocked Ukraine and Georgia from submitting a NATO membership action plan for fear of escalation by Russia. Since then, the Alliance has only promised accession to both countries "one day".

After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Merkel refused to acknowledge that her decision that day could be one of the causes of Russian aggression. 

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