Merkel: Many Nations Not Interested in Ukraine Solution
Merkel Says Many Nations Were Not Interested in Diplomatic Solution of Ukraine Conflict
Sputnik International • May 1, 2023
BERLIN (Sputnik) – Before the conflict in Ukraine escalated in February 2022, many countries were not interested in the diplomatic solution of the crisis, while diplomacy is still a necessity, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.
“I used everything at my disposal to prevent this situation. The fact that I couldn’t do it does not prove me wrong to try,” Merkel said in an interview with the German daily, published on Saturday.
Merkel, who left office in 2021, defended her attempts to settle the Ukrainian crisis with the Minsk agreements in 2014. Diplomacy is still a necessity, she stated.
“To my great disappointment, there were quite a few [officials] who was not so interested in it,” the former chancellor said.
While she was a chancellor, only France and Germany stood for the Ukraine conflict’s settlement in the Council of the European Union, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told her that the Minsk agreements were unfeasible, Merkel added.
“It was important to me – and I always tried to achieve this – that we did not limit our ideas too much,” she said.
For instance, if someone thinks that negotiations must be reopened sooner or later, they should not be silenced right away, Merkel added.
In February, Zelensky admitted that he told Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron that the Minsk agreements were impractical and that he had no intention to implement them. Merkel said that the Minsk agreements were an attempt to give Ukraine time to gain strength ahead of a full-scale military confrontation with Russia.
“And they shall come against thee with chariots, wagons, and wheels, and with an assembly of people, who shall set against thee buckler and shield and helmet roundabout; and I will set judgement before them, and they shall judge thee according to their judgements.
“And I will set My jealousy against thee, and they shall deal furiously with thee. They shall take away thy nose and thine ears, and thy remnant shall fall by the sword. They shall take thy sons and thy daughters, and thy residue shall be devoured by the fire” Ezekiel 23:24-25
Joel Huan
The Mystery of Ephraim 