Ukrainian Foreign Minister urges Germany not to repeat Merkel's mistake
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has called on the German government not to repeat the mistakes of former Chancellor Angela Merkel, who prevented Ukraine from joining NATO.
Source: Kuleba in an interview with Bild
Quote from Kuleba: "Don't repeat Chancellor Merkel's mistake in Bucharest in 2008, when she fiercely resisted any progress towards Ukraine's NATO membership."
Details: According to Kuleba, the Alliance's decision at that time "opened the door for Putin's invasion of Georgia and, ultimately, the illegal annexation of Crimea". If Ukraine had already been a member of NATO in 2014, the annexation of Crimea, the war in Donbas and the invasion of the entire country would not have happened.
However, according to Kuleba, Kyiv does not expect accession to NATO during the war.
"But after the war, it would be suicide for Europe not to accept Ukraine as a member of NATO," he said.
"The only way to close the doors of Russian aggression against Europe and the European-Atlantic area as a whole is to accept Ukraine into NATO," the minister stressed.
He explained that Russia will not dare to attack Ukraine again when it is a member of NATO. And then Ukraine will free Germany and other Western NATO countries from the burden of protecting its eastern flank.
"We will take this burden on our shoulders," Kuleba said.
Background:
- At the Bucharest NATO summit in 2008, Germany and France blocked the provision of an action plan for NATO membership to Ukraine and Georgia, fearing escalation from Russia. Since then, the Alliance has only promised both of these countries entry "one day".
- After the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Merkel refused to admit that her decision could have led to Russian aggression.
- In May 2023, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated that regardless of the decision made at the Alliance summit in 2008, where Ukraine did not receive a Membership Action Plan, Russia's attack on Ukraine is an unjustified violation of international law.
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