Rejected NATO membership in 2008
Selenskyj calls on Merkel and Sarkozy to visit Bucha
Angela Merkel and Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a meeting in August 2021. Zelenskyy criticizes Merkel’s “policy of concessions towards Russia”
© Sergey Dolzhenko/ / Picture Alliance
After the Bucha massacre, Ukraine’s President attacks ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel and France’s ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy. They should come to Bucha and see where the policy of concessions has led, Zelenskyj demands.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has asked former Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and France’s ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy to travel to Bucha, a town affected by alleged atrocities. “I invite Ms. Merkel and Mr. Sarkozy to visit Bucha and see what the policy of concessions towards Russia has led to,” he said in a video address on Sunday.
In 2008, the NATO states rejected Ukraine’s admission to the military alliance because of the “absurd fear of some politicians” of Russia, Zelensky said. They believed “that by rejecting Ukraine, they could placate Russia.”
Butscha: Selenskyj doesn’t blame the West – but speaks of miscalculation
Because of this “miscalculation,” Ukraine has experienced a revolution, eight years of war in Donbass in eastern Ukraine, and now “the worst war in Europe since the Second World War.” But “we don’t blame the West,” added the President. “We don’t blame anyone except the Russian military and those who gave them orders.”
The Russian army recently withdrew from the Kyiv region. According to the Ukrainian authorities, hundreds of civilian bodies were then found in the suburb of Bucha. The pictures and videos from the place triggered international horror. Moscow has denied the killing of civilians by Russian soldiers in Bucha.
Zelenskyy accused Moscow of “genocide” and accused Russian soldiers of massive atrocities: “Why were ordinary civilians tortured to death in a peaceful city? Why were women strangled after tearing off their earrings? How could they rape women in front of children and kill? Mock their bodies even after they die? Why did they run over the bodies of people with tanks? What did Bucha do to your Russia?”
The Ukrainian President announced a “special judicial mechanism” to investigate and prosecute Russian “crimes” in Ukraine. “National and international experts, investigators, prosecutors and judges” are to be involved. “Anyone guilty of such crimes” will be “found and punished,” Zelenskyj said.