Putin could have achieved his goals regarding Ukraine without war, but he deliberately chose aggression, - Scholz
Former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that Russian President Vladimir Putin could have achieved his demands regarding Ukraine without the use of force, but went to war because he wanted it.
This was reported by Censor.NET with reference to Die Welt.
According to the former chancellor, Putin could achieve goals such as Ukraine's refusal to join NATO or the non-deployment of long-range missiles on its territory without military intervention.
"All this could have been achieved without war, and Ukrainians would ultimately have agreed to it, as would we all. This means that he wanted war," Scholz said.
He also expressed his conviction that Putin had made the decision to launch a full-scale attack on Ukraine long before 2022.
"Today, I am firmly convinced that Putin planned his attack two years in advance and that little could have deterred him from doing so," the former chancellor emphasized.
Supply of German weapons to Ukraine
Separately, Scholz defended the pace of German arms deliveries to Ukraine during his tenure.
"I find this discussion ridiculous, if I may say so openly, because it has little to do with the fact that we have organized actual arms deliveries," he said, adding that Berlin had always taken into account the position of its partners and Russia's possible reaction.
