A new dig has been sent towards the German Chancellor on the account Telegram by Volodymyr Zelensky, this Monday, November 18. In a messagethe Ukrainian president spoke of the Russian strike on Odessa, which left at least ten dead barely three days after the telephone conversation between the head of the German government Olaf Scholz and Vladimir Putin. “These are not random strikes, but demonstrative strikes,” wrote the Ukrainian president. “After the calls […] with Putin […]Russia shows what it really cares about: war. And this message should be heard in every part of the world, from the halls where G20 members meet to every capital of the world.”
Olaf Scholz justifies himself
On Sunday, the chancellor defended his controversial interview with Vladimir Putin without dispelling the impression that he was attempting an electoral maneuver to present himself as “chancellor of peace” before perilous elections. “Ukraine can count on us” and “no decision will be taken over Ukraine’s head”, declared Olaf Scholz before leaving for the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, attended by the main leaders of the planet but not Vladimir Putin, nor Volodymyr Zelensky.
A clarification motivated by the criticism which followed his hour-long telephone conversation on Friday with the Russian head of state, the first between the two men in almost two years. This exchange was necessary to “tell him that he should not count on the fact that the support of Germany, Europe and many others in the world for Ukraine will weaken”, he said. said the chancellor.
Immediate criticism from Ukraine and Poland
The call immediately angered kyiv, with the Ukrainian president accusing him of having opened “Pandora’s box”. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk joined the criticism: the Russian attack on Ukraine on the night of Saturday to Sunday, one of the most important of this war, “proved that diplomacy by telephone cannot replace a real support from the entire West” in kyiv, he stressed.
According to Olaf Scholz, Donald Trump’s promises to end the war in Ukraine, without saying how, also explain this gesture: it “would not be a good idea if, in the near future, there were discussions between the president American and the Russian president without the head of an important European country”, Germany in this case, “also leading discussions himself”, defended the chancellor.
“Send an electoral signal”
The German chancellor, weakened and now without a sufficient parliamentary majority to govern since the breakdown of his coalition, is the target of attacks by the conservative opposition who accused him on Saturday of having contributed to Moscow’s “propaganda”. According to his detractors, the leader of the Social Democrats (SDP) is largely behind in the polls ahead of the early legislative elections on February 23, and wanted to send an electoral signal with this call, according to his detractors.
“He now wants to play chancellor of peace and, by aligning himself with Putin, he ignores Russia’s objective,” asserts the left-wing daily TAZ. Part of German public opinion is worried about the stagnation of the war in Ukraine and the resources devoted to it by Germany, the second provider of military aid to kyiv after the United States.