No plans to admit Ukraine to Western alliances like Nato, says Germany’s Olaf Scholz
- German Chancellor, in Kyiv with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, says currently no plans to admit Ukraine to the likes of Nato
- ‘That is why it is [peculiar] that the Russian government is making something that is practically not on the agenda the subject of major political problems’
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says there are currently no plans to admit Ukraine to Western alliances such as Nato, despite what Moscow might imply with its security demands in the Ukraine crisis.
“That is why it is somewhat peculiar to observe that the Russian government is making something that is practically not on the agenda the subject of major political problems,” Scholz said at a joint press conference following talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Monday.
“That is, after all, the challenge we are actually facing. That something that is not at all an issue now is being made an issue,” he said.
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At the same press conference Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was wielding its Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline as a “geopolitical weapon”.
The controversial energy link bypassing Ukraine has been a growing irritant in Germany’s relations with the US and Ukraine.
“We have certain disagreements in our assessments” of the Russia-Germany energy link, Zelensky said. “We clearly understand that it is a geopolitical weapon.”