Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has clearly rejected a dictated peace in Ukraine enforced militarily by Russia. “There will be no dictated peace because the Ukrainians will not accept it and neither will we,” said Scholz in a government statement in the Bundestag on Thursday.
Scholz defended the deliveries of heavy weapons to Ukraine against criticism from the population and from politics. “Helping a brutally attacked country to swear in is not escalation. But a contribution to repelling the attack and thus ending the violence as quickly as possible,” he said.
He, too, is worried, said the Chancellor, but at the same time emphasized: “We all have one goal in common: Russia must not win this war. Ukraine must survive.”
The federal government is also strengthening Ukraine’s military back, “considered, weighed up and closely coordinated internationally,” said Scholz. Germany will not go it alone, and the federal government will not do anything that would turn NATO into a war party.
Scholz called for a resolute defense of the peace. War has not become unimaginable in Europe either, he said. “Peace can only be taken for granted if we are prepared to defend it. That is the lesson we are learning from Russia’s brutal attack on Ukraine.
Scholz said the European Union had overcome various challenges and crises in recent years. The war in the immediate vicinity was without a doubt the biggest. “In one respect, however, this crisis is similar to the previous ones. Once again we experience: The greater the pressure from outside, the more determined and united the European Union acts.”
Scholz spoke at the extraordinary EU summit on May 30th and 31st in Brussels. The meeting of the heads of state and government is likely to focus primarily on the Ukraine war and its consequences. Possible topics are the planned oil embargo against Russia and the EU Commission’s plan to solve energy imports from Russia.