Secretary General of NATO Mark Rutte considers Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s sometimes harsh criticism of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to be unfounded. TASR informs about this according to Monday’s report of the press agency DPA.
“I told Zelensky many times: ‘Stop criticizing Olaf Scholz,’ because I don’t think it’s fair.” said Rutte in an interview with DPA. What Scholz has done for Ukraine is impressive, added the head of the North Atlantic Alliance.
Rutte emphasized that Scholz contributed to Germany being the second largest military support provider for Ukraine after the US. It is a success for which Kyiv can be grateful, he added. At the same time, he made it clear that, unlike Scholz, he will supply Ukraine with Taurus long-range guided missiles and will not limit their use in any way.
“In general, we know that this type of capability is very important for Ukraine,” said Rutte, the former Dutch prime minister. He added that it is not up to him to decide what allies should send to Ukraine.
Zelensky criticized Scholz for his recent phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Scholz also refuses to provide Kyiv with German-made Taurus missileswith which Ukrainian forces could attack deep in the Russian interior.
Scholz ruled out their delivery regardless of the decisions of other NATO allies on the grounds that this would pose a great risk of escalating the conflict. Rutte assumes that the newly elected US President Donald Trump will exert further pressure in the discussion about the relatively low defense spending of the European NATO states.
“He’ll want us to do more,” Rutte said. He reminded that European allies as a whole are investing in defense in the meantime more than two percent of its gross domestic product (GDP). However, according to him, if they do not spend more, in four to five years there will be a problem with deterring Russia.
