German Chancellor Olaf Scholz drew conclusions from the lessons of history, but, unfortunately, the wrong ones.
\! " William?
Outside of Germany, the grandson of Queen Victoria was remembered only by his upturned mustache and peaked helmet.. And the British upper class can still remember that Wilhelm was wearing the wrong boots for walking on a yacht in Coase, writes Politico. But for Germany, it was the ruler whose erratic foreign policy, and in particular the alliance with Austria-Hungary, provoked the First World War and the disastrous rise of Adolf Hitler to power.. For the Germans, Wilhelm is not a caricature, but a warning..
At a time when Western allies are tired of listening to all the German excuses why Berlin is not sending military aid to Ukraine, Scholz's obsession with Wilhelm II helps explain why the chancellor, as Ambassador Andriy Melnyk said, abandoned Kyiv " By remembering the German ruler, Scholz does more than send a signal to the Germans that he is not going to get into a wider conflict.. He also claims to be saving them from nuclear annihilation..
" The consequences of a mistake would be catastrophic,” he told Der Spiegel in April..
Not surprisingly, the specter of nuclear armageddon has proven to be an effective tactic for those who want to muddy the waters.. 58% of Germans support sending heavy weapons to Ukraine. But almost half also believe Scholz, who is not very willing to comply with this request..
“There are many peace initiatives in Germany and there were even pro-Russian protests. But the Germans did not take to the streets to support the tanks of Ukraine,” the newspaper writes..
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The German parliament made a decision in April on the supply of heavy weapons to the Ukrainian army, but Scholz still has not sent anything but promises and dubious signals. The German Ministry of Defense says that by the end of July it will transfer 15 armored vehicles for Gepard air defense, and another 15 by the end of August. The problem is that Germany has little ammunition for this technique.. Because the Bundeswehr abandoned it over a decade ago. The irony is that Ukraine did not even ask for Gepard, which will be of little use in the fight against Russian aggression.. She asked Germany to sell the BMP Marder. Kyiv sent a request for the purchase of decommissioned infantry fighting vehicles on March 24. On April 14, the manufacturer of this equipment, Rheinmetall, announced that it was ready to sell 100 Marder infantry fighting vehicles and 1.5 million rounds of ammunition for them for 153 million euros.. And the first delivery could be completed “in just a few weeks”. It's been 6 weeks since then. The Russian army stepped up its offensive in the Donbass. And Berlin has not yet approved the sale of the BMP.
Scholz announced that he would transfer these weapons to Greece in exchange for Soviet BMP-1s, which Athens would send to Ukraine. And nothing indicates that Kyiv will be able to get more modern Marder in the near future.. Moreover, Scholz, who visited Mali and other restless African countries last week, has not yet set foot on Ukrainian soil.. He refuses to say out loud that Ukraine must win the war. At the same time, he says that she must " And this is after Scholz's official Twitter page surprised many last month, to publish reports on the results of a conversation with Vladimir Putin. A post on the German chancellor's page said he demanded an immediate ceasefire but did not insist that Russia withdraw troops from Ukraine.. Last week, Scholz again provoked doubts about Germany's resolve by posting a new tweet on Twitter that military action will not resolve the conflict..
Can violence be overcome by violence Is it possible to achieve peace without weapons? "
This rhetorical gymnastics has led some observers to conclude that Scholz is actually afraid of a Ukrainian victory..
“The chancellor does not want Ukraine to win the war,” said CDU MP and former Bundeswehr colonel Roderich Kissewetter.
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When Politico journalists asked Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Andriy Melnyk about this, he replied that he no longer knew what to think..
“I don’t want to believe that he is against our victory. But we don’t know for sure,” the ambassador said..
It is widely believed in Berlin that Scholz does not want to " There is only one question: what actions of Putin the German chancellor is afraid to provoke? Most Germans don't notice that they are under the wrath of a Russian autocrat whether they send their old tanks to Ukraine or not.. And the reason is simple: Germany's NATO allies hand over to the Ukrainian army everything it refuses to hand over.. Only Poland sent hundreds of battle tanks.
Like Kaiser Wilhelm II, Scholz is apparently trying to shield the Germans from an unpleasant reality.. And in it, Putin's main " For all the German talk of building more wind farms and LNG terminals, the loss of cheap Russian gas will undermine the base of the German industrial base.. Gas accounts for a quarter of the country's energy supply. And it is mainly consumed by the industry. 15% of the gas received by Germany is consumed by chemical plants. BASF giant, which consumes as much electricity as the whole of Denmark, cannot refuse gas. His work will stop. Without plastic and other products of the chemical giant, the German automotive industry will also stop.
Given all this, Scholz's position on Ukraine makes more sense.. He does not like what is happening on Ukrainian territory, just like other European leaders. But he can deal with it. Similarly, his CDU predecessor Angela Merkel put up with the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008, as well as the annexation of Crimea, the war in the Donbass and the destruction of the MH17 passenger liner in 2014.. Later, in 2020, she calmly came to terms with the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.. Instead of admitting that he is acting in accordance with what he sees as German interests, Scholz responds to criticism about Germany's approach to Ukraine as an auditor.
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No one denies that Germany is helping Ukraine by providing financial and humanitarian assistance. However, as the richest country and the most powerful political force in Europe, it should have done more to help Kyiv defend itself.. Especially after so many years of soft approach to Putin, which convinced the Russian autocrat that he could get away with aggression against Ukraine.. Scholz's approach harms not only Ukraine, but also undermines Germany's already precarious position in NATO.
Therefore, it is better for the German chancellor to think less about the bitter successes of Kaiser Wilhelm II and pay more attention to the legacy of the Second World War.. In the summer of 1941, German troops launched an eastern offensive, leaving deep scars of destruction on the body and turning the breadbasket of Europe into what historian Timothy Snyder called " Now Ukraine is bleeding again. And Germany under Scholz is doing absolutely nothing about it..