Germany still plans to support Ukraine, but Chancellor Olaf Scholz believes that he and Donald Trumpon will agree on a strategy.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is convinced that he will be able to agree on a joint strategy for Ukraine with the elected US President Donald Trump. He said this in an interview published on Saturday for the Funke media group. TASR informs about it according to the AFP agency.
According to Scholz, he had intensive phone calls with the future US president, and his team is in direct contact with persons responsible for American security policy.
Trump’s ascension to the White House is expected to bring about a change in US policy towards Ukraine, which until now has been closely coordinated with allies in Europe. During the election campaign, Trump promised that he would be able to end the war in Ukraine “within a single day”. However, he has not yet clarified how he would achieve this. He also criticizes the scope of American aid to Kyiv.
“My main principle remains that nothing can be decided without Ukrainian citizens commenting on it,” said the federal chancellor.
Germany continues to support Ukraine
Germany is one of Kiev’s biggest military backers – second only to the United States in terms of aid sent to Ukraine. Scholz has drawn criticism in recent weeks for speaking directly to Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin on the phone. But he promised that Germany would continue to support Ukraine “as best as it can”.
“It is important that the killing ends soon and that the independence and sovereignty of Ukraine is guaranteed,” he said in an interview with Funke.
The war in Ukraine, which has been resisting the Russian invasion for more than 1,000 days, is becoming one of the main topics of the campaign in Germany ahead of early elections in February. These were triggered by the collapse of the current government coalition after Scholz dismissed Finance Minister Christian Lindner from the Free Democratic Party (FDP) due to disagreements. The leader of the opposition Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), Friedrich Merz, says that Germany should send long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine, which it has expressed interest in. Scholz again ruled out such a move in an interview with Funke. These weapons are capable of hitting targets in Russia and, according to him, there is a risk of escalation “which must be avoided”.
