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Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blames Germany, France over failed Ukraine diplomacy
By Alexandra Brzozowski | EURACTIV.comApr 4, 2022
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blamed former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and ex-French President Nicolas Sarkozy for fourteen years of failed diplomacy vis a vis Russia, which only emboldened Moscow to be more aggressive.
In a video address delivered on Sunday night (3 April) after reports emerged of war crimes committed by Russian forces in Bucha, a city in Ukraine’s Kyiv region, Zelenskyy said:
“I invite Mrs Merkel and Mr Sarkozy to visit Bucha and see what the policy of concessions to Russia has led to in 14 years. To see with their own eyes the tortured Ukrainian men and women,” Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy referred to NATO’s 2008 Bucharest summit, when allies did not decide to grant Ukraine and Georgia the NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP), which theoretically would have put them on a path to joining the military alliance at some point in the future.
NATO leaders in their final summit communiqué back then only had stated that “these countries will become members of NATO,” without specifying more details on modalities.
But Germany and France back then had been among those NATO members blocking such ambitions, which were voiced at the same time as they were conducting peace diplomacy around Russia’s war with Georgia.
“They thought that by refusing Ukraine, they would be able to appease Russia, to convince it to respect Ukraine and live normally next to us,” Zelenskyy said.
“During the 14 years since that miscalculation, Ukraine has experienced a revolution and eight years of war in Donbas. And now we are fighting for life in the most horrific war in Europe since World War II,” he added.
The Ukrainian president, however, toned down his accusations toward the end of the speech, adding that Ukraine would “not blame the West. We do not blame anyone except the specific Russian forces who did this to our people. And those who gave them orders.”
There has so far been no official response from Berlin or Paris.
Zelenskyy comments came after a series of Ukrainian officials pointed fingers at Paris and Berlin for their restrained and largely futile diplomatic efforts.
“They [Germany and France] just continue saying that they’re asking for a peaceful resolution and that they’re deeply concerned about Russia’s actions – toothless statements don’t work anymore,” former Ukrainian prime minister Volodymyr Groysman told EURACTIV last month in reference to the failed Minsk agreements.
Minsk II, brokered by France and Germany and aimed at ending the previous war in eastern Ukraine, was widely seen by the Ukrainian side as a betrayal of their national interests and was never fully implemented.
A major blockage has been Russia’s insistence that it is not a party to the conflict and is therefore not bound by its terms.
Asked about whether France and Germany should mediate in future peace talks after the current war ends, Groysman said both countries “need to stop fooling themselves and need to stop fooling their citizens”.
“They need to be frank and acknowledge that the eight years of diplomacy which they have been attempting to hold before this war started has only led to new escalation and to a large scale war against Ukraine,” he added.
Zelenskyy blames Germany, France over failed Ukraine diplomacy
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blamed former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and ex-French President Nicolas Sarkozy for fourteen years of failed diplomacy vis a vis Russia.
www.euractiv.com
