German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced a consensus with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Western weapons will not be used to attack Russia. He spoke about this in an interview with Bild..

In particular, the chancellor was asked if there were agreements with Zelensky that the weapons received by Kyiv from the West would be used only on the territory of Ukraine and the territory of the Russian Federation would not be attacked by him..

“There is a consensus about this,” Scholz replied..

The German chancellor also reacted to the statements of the head of the Kremlin Vladimir Putin that Russia is “again threatened by German tanks”.

“His words are part of a series of nonsensical historical comparisons he uses to justify his attack on Ukraine.. But this war cannot be justified by anything. Russia is waging a merciless war against Ukraine,” Scholz said..

“Together with our allies, we are transferring battle tanks to Ukraine so that it can defend itself.. We carefully weighed each delivery of weapons, closely coordinated it with our allies, primarily with America.. Such a common approach prevents the escalation of the war,” he added..

Scholz also spoke about whether Putin threatened him during telephone conversations..

“No, Putin did not threaten me or Germany. In our telephone conversations, our different positions regarding the war in Ukraine are very clearly manifested.. I made it very clear to Putin that Russia bears full responsibility for the war.. Russia invaded a neighboring country for no reason to seize part of Ukraine or the whole country,” the chancellor said..

" That is why we support Ukraine financially, humanitarianly, and also with weapons,” he said..

Scholz promised to continue to make decisions on the supply of weapons to Ukraine very carefully.

Touching upon the issue of Ukraine's accession to the EU, the German Chancellor said that for this the country must meet the necessary criteria in matters of the rule of law, democracy, respect for human rights and the fight against corruption.

“It was a powerful signal that we made Moldova and Ukraine candidates for membership last summer. Each candidate must meet the necessary criteria to become a member of the EU - this is a matter of the rule of law, democracy, respect for human rights and the fight against corruption,” Scholz said..

According to him, there are no bonuses against the background of the need to fight the aggression of the Russian Federation, "

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Germany for a long time refused to supply Leopard tanks to Ukraine, arguing that such a step was inappropriate..

However, on January 25, Berlin decided to provide the Armed Forces with Leopard-2 battle tanks.. The German government also gave permission to other states to supply Ukraine with their own Leopard tanks..

Earlier, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov, answering a question about permission to use weapons received from Western allies for preventive strikes, said that the Ukrainian side had no warnings about strikes against military targets in Russia.