The former chancellor did not want to supply German weapons for a Ukrainian military effort she believed was futile

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has admitted she was skeptical about the ability of the post-coup government in Kiev to recapture the rebellious Donbass republics by force during her time in office.

Merkel served as German chancellor from 2005 to 2021 and has recently published her memoirs. In an interview with Der Spiegel released on Friday, she was asked why she opposed weapons deliveries to Ukraine in 2014.

There was significant debate in Kiev regarding a potential military push to root out resistance in eastern Ukraine, the former chancellor said.

I was of the opinion that this would have no chance of success.

"It was a dilemma. In the end, we didn't supply any weapons from Germany, but we supported all of NATO's efforts," she said, claiming that Berlin "could not leave the Ukrainians unprotected."

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Merkel was one of the guarantors of the 2014-15 Minsk agreements, which aimed to reintegrate Donbass into Ukraine with greater autonomy. However, she admitted in 2022 that the Minsk deal was merely "an attempt to give Ukraine time" and bolster Kiev against Moscow.
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Other countries are still benefiting from energy trade with Moscow, the former German chancellor has said

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In an interview with Der Spiegel magazine published on Friday, Merkel was asked why she neither armed Ukraine nor strengthened Germany's defensive capabilities, nor weaned her country off Russian gas during her tenure.

"Many important aspects are being forgotten today: for example, Ukraine and Poland were not fundamentally opposed to our import of Russian gas as long as it passed through their territory and they received transit fees for it," she said.

Merkel defended her decision not to halt imports via the Nord Stream pipelines, arguing that it would have made little difference if Berlin had stopped buying gas from Moscow in 2014.

"It would have been the same back then if we had broken off all economic ties," she said, pointing to "other countries" that continue to buy Russian gas to this day.

"I saw it as one of my tasks to secure cheap gas for the German economy. We can now see the consequences of high energy prices for our country," she added.

The German economy has been in a recession since 2023, contracting by 0.3% this year and projected to shrink further by 0.1% in 2024, according to the European Commission's economic forecast released last week. Rising costs and weak economic performance have led to soaring rates of corporate bankruptcy in the country, Der Spiegel reported earlier this week.

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The first two underwater Nord Stream pipelines were launched in 2012 and supplied around 16% of the EU's natural gas needs by 2018, meeting half of Germany's annual demand by 2021. Two additional pipelines were built but never became operational, as Berlin halted certification of Nord Stream 2 amid pressure from the US shortly before Russia's military operation in Ukraine. Three of the four pipelines were sabotaged in September 2022 in a series of mysterious explosions.

The EU still receives approximately 5% of its gas imports from Russia via Ukraine's gas transit network, according to Brussels-based economic think tank Bruegel. The transit agreement between Moscow and Kiev is set to expire on December 31.

Washington has introduced penalties against the SWIFT-linked Gazprombank, which handles energy-related transactions

New restrictions against Gazprombank will hurt countries in Central Europe, Hungary's foreign minister has said

Washington's decision to blacklist Russia's Gazprombank, a key conduit for gas purchases from Russia, is aimed at undermining energy security in the Central European region, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has claimed.

Earlier this week, the US Treasury Department imposed blocking sanctions on more than 50 Russian financial institutions, including Gazprombank, linked to the eponymous Russian gas giant, and six of its international subsidiaries.

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• Germany: Comatose and Without Sovereignty Nov 2024
• How blind support for Ukraine broke Germany Nov 2024
• Biden's attack on Nord Stream pipelines was aimed at Germany - Seymour Hersh Dec 2023
• Citing privacy concerns, Pompeo gaslights German cooperation with Huawei, forgets NSA spied on Merkel Jun 2020
• Germany and Russia should be natural partners - but one of them is a US vassal state and the other is not Jan 2019
• Trump-Merkel epic meeting: President ignores handshake request from vassal Chancellor Mar 2017
• Ignorance is bliss: Merkel 'presumed' Berlin didn't spy on allies, she tells investigators of German surveillance Feb 2017
• US vassal state Germany approves first steps in trade deal with Canada, precursor to horrendous TTIP Oct 2016
• Merkel uses terrorism threat to defend BND's cooperation with NSA in corporate economic espionage May 2015
• Merkel let the NSA in, turned Germany into another vassal of the US - German lawmaker May 2015
• Ex-NSA and intelligence veterans warn Merkel on U.S. lies concerning 'Russian invasion' of Ukraine Sep 2014
• Merkel indignant over German agent spying for US Jul 2014
• Feeling safer yet?: German chancellor Angela Merkel denied access to her NSA file Apr 2014
• Merkel compared NSA to Stasi in heated encounter with Obama Dec 2013
• Obama sez.: U.S. not monitoring German chancellor Angela Merkel's phone Oct 2013
• Forget Merkel, the NSA has been tapping the phones of at least 35 world leaders Oct 2013
• Merkel's public indignation a scam: Snowden says Germans and other Western states in bed with NSA Jul 2013
• Former German intelligence chief: In 1949 West Germany signed up to become United States vassal, NATO contemplated false-flag nuclear attack to 'cement' deal Nov 2009

The retired General details a secret pact he alleges was signed in 1949 between Germany and the US, and which will be in force for another 90 years.

Komossa says the secret agreement means that all political parties in Germany are supervised by a special Washington-based body, that the country's army takes part in all NATO missions at first demand and that all German gold reserves are stored in New York.

For some though, the content of the book came as nothing surprising.

"Remember Prime Minister Putin's proposal to Germany, to share with Russia natural gas trading throughout Europe? It was made a couple of years ago. And the German leadership answered exactly the same way as the German leadership did in 1952 - with silence. But what is the reason for Germany not to participate in such a lucrative business as trading natural gas throughout Europe? Of course, somebody had to advise them not to rush into it immediately," says Aleksandr Fomenko, a political analyst from Moscow.