Olaf Scholz: “Our goal must be that Russia does not win the war”
The Federal Chancellor, the Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, has accused today of “cynics” and “liars” those who deny in Russia the massacre of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, after accusing the Russian military of committing war crimes during the invasion from Ukraine. Russian soldiers have committed “a massacre with Ukrainian civilians, including children, women and the elderly,” said the head of the German government in an intervention before the Bundestag, the federal parliament. “The killing of civilians is a war crime” and Bucha’s “heinous images” have “deeply shocked us,” Scholz told the camera, where he strongly rejected Russian claims that the images are fake. “The cynical statement spread by Russia that this issue is a staging, falls back on those who spread these lies,” declared the federal chancellor, for whom the perpetrators of the massacres and those who ordered them “must be held accountable.”
Olaf Scholz warned that “the killings by the Russian military” in Ukraine continue and that the images taken in Bucha will have to be repeated. Addressing Russian President Vladimir Putin directly, he demanded that he immediately end the “destructive and self-destructive war” in Ukraine. The head of the Berlin government also announced new arms shipments to Ukraine to defend against the Russian invasion. “Our goal must be that Russia does not win this war,” said the federal chancellor, who commented that there will be coordination between the partners of the European Union and the Atlantic Alliance to continue supplying weapons to the kyiv government and increase and tighten sanctions against Moscow. . Scholz stressed that Ukraine’s offer of neutrality if Russia ends its offensive war “is a great concession to the aggressor”, but that it should not lead to “a dictated peace”.
“It is the Ukrainians and the Ukrainians who negotiate what they are willing to agree to. No one else », Scholz said that he repeats over and over again in his conversations when he personally communicates with Putin. Regarding the security guarantees that Ukraine demands from the West, he pointed out that “nothing has been decided”, although “of course we talk about it with the necessary confidentiality with Ukraine and also with those who have been mentioned”. There is nothing concrete yet, explained the Social Democratic politician, for whom it will first be necessary to clarify what concrete guarantees Ukraine demands. Angela Merkel’s successor at the head of the German executive was opposed, due to the conflict in Ukraine, to prolonging the life of nuclear power plants in this country, where the last three plants in operation will be closed at the end of the year. “It’s not a good plan,” he commented and stressed that they are not prepared to extend their lives, in addition to the fact that they lack the necessary atomic fuel to do so.
Germany’s goal now is to reduce its dependence on Russian oil and gas as much as possible as soon as possible, with the ultimate goal of doing without those supplies altogether, said Scholz, who also referred to his upcoming meeting with the heads of government of the 16 German Länder to deal with financing the reception of Ukrainian refugees in this country. Germany has so far received more than 300,000 people who have fled Ukraine, mostly the elderly, women and children. More than 3,000 new refugees fleeing the war arrive daily at Berlin Central Station by train, although their number has decreased. A few weeks ago there were more than 10,000 daily.
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