Scholz addresses the Russian President directly: "Putin, withdraw your troops..."
Created: 05/08/2022 05:04
By: Cindy Boden
Germany's parties are arguing about the right course for Ukraine.
Merz does not hold back his criticism of Lambrecht.
Bundestag President Bas travels to Kyiv.
News ticker.
Escalated Ukraine conflict:
Bundestag President
Bas
in
Kiev
:
If possible, she also wants to meet Selenskyj.
Scholz
sends a
message to Putin
:
he is again calling for an end to the war.
Christian
Lindner does not expect the
chancellor to
visit
Kiev
quickly
.
CDU leader
Friedrich Merz
verbally attacked Scholz' Minister
Christine Lambrecht
.
This
news ticker on reactions from Germany to the Ukraine war
is continuously updated.
Update from May 7, 8:33 p.m .:
Bundestag President Bärbel Bas (SPD) is visiting Kiev on Sunday.
At the invitation of the Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament, Ruslan Stefanchuk, she wants to take part in a commemoration of the victims of National Socialism at the end of the Second World War in the Ukrainian capital.
If the security situation permits, Bas says he also wants to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Bas' visit had been planned since April.
Scholz addresses the Russian President directly: "Putin, withdraw your troops..."
Update from May 7, 3:40 p.m .:
Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (both SPD) have again condemned Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine.
The war was brutal and could not be justified by anything, Scholz said on Saturday in a video message at the party conference of the Hessian SPD in Marburg.
"Putin, end this war, the weapons must be silent, withdraw your troops."
Scholz emphasized that support for Ukraine would be weighed and agreed upon.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) addressed Putin directly.
© Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa/archive image
Ukraine news on Germany: Lindner does not expect Scholz to visit Kyiv quickly
Update from May 7, 2:37 p.m .:
After the Kiev invitation from Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) to Ukraine, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner does not expect a quick visit.
He has the greatest respect for such a spontaneous invitation, said the head of the FDP to the German Press Agency on Saturday at the sidelines of an election campaign event in Kiel.
Such a visit requires preparation.
He suspects that the security authorities will not be able to do this in the short term.
On the question of whether Scholz should generally travel to Ukraine, Lindner said: "The Chancellor decides that himself.
I know that he always carefully weighs his decisions from different perspectives.
"
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj had invited the Federal Chancellor to Kyiv on May 9th.
With this, Scholz could take a “very strong political step”.
On the same day, Russia wants to celebrate “Victory Day” with a military parade.
News from Ukraine about Germany: Klingbeil recognizes the wrong sentence about Russia in the SPD program
Update from May 7, 2:15 p.m .:
SPD chairman Lars Klingbeil has announced a realignment of his party’s Ostpolitik.
"We focused too much on Russia," he told
Welt am Sonntag
.
"In future we will have to cooperate much more closely with the Eastern European countries."
The sentence in the SPD's basic program, according to which security in Europe can only be achieved with Russia, is no longer correct against the background of the Ukraine war.
According to Klingbeil, the party's internal commission for international politics will determine the future principles of social democratic foreign and security policy in the coming months.
"This also includes a critical look back," said the SPD leader.
SPD leader Lars Klingbeil and Chancellor Olaf Scholz (l).
© Florian Gaertner/Imago
Update from May 7, 12:05 p.m .:
The Berlin police issued conditions for the 77th anniversary of the end of the war, which Ukraine Ambassador Melnyk sharply rejects.
Important detail: It's not about the whole capital.
Ukraine news from Germany: Merz doubts the competence of Scholz' defense minister
First report:
Berlin – opposition leader Friedrich Merz (CDU) is looking for the right path for his party in the Ukraine war.
With his visit to Kyiv, during which he even met the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he attracted a lot of attention.
He acted statesmanlike.
However, he did not forget his function as a critic of the government during this time.
So he now handed out against the acting Minister of Defense Christine Lambrecht (SPD), who is verbally attacked from many sides anyway.
"If she understands something about the matter, then she is very successful in hiding it from the public," said CDU leader Merz
in an interview with the
Rheinische Post
when asked whether Lambrecht was the right person.
"And if she already lets it be known that she is interested in the Ministry of the Interior if the current incumbent should go back to Hesse, then that shows how comfortable she feels in her office," said Merz, with a nod to speculation about one Cabinet castling.
When the
Rheinische Post
brought FDP defense expert Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann into play as a possible minister of the department, Merz remained reserved, as expected: "That would certainly not have been the worse choice." Strack-Zimmermann has been at the latest since her own visit to Ukraine a lot with demands in the headlines and also got a lot of applause at the last FDP party conference.
CDU leader Friedrich Merz: opposition leader is looking for his role © Bonnfilm/Klaus W Schmidt/Sepp Spiegl/Imago
Germany and the Ukraine war: Merkel to Putin?
"Any cooperation with Putin is impossible"
Angela Merkel's name sometimes comes up around the Ukraine war.
In the interview, Merz was asked whether the former chancellor should travel to Moscow as an intermediary: "I don't know if she wants that.
And if so, then the federal government would have to talk to her about it.
But I have my doubts as to whether we can still talk to Putin at all.”
Merkel's ex-adviser Christoph Heusgen, now head of the Munich Security Conference, also commented on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He ruled out working with the Kremlin boss after the end of the war.
“Any cooperation with Putin is impossible.
Russia's president has said goodbye to the civilized world," Heusgen told the
Funke media group
newspapers .
Putin has broken all agreements under which his name stands and belongs before an international court for war crimes committed by Russia.
News about the war: Ex-Merkel adviser fears scenario for Ukraine like in the First World War
In addition, for Heusgen there are no signs that the Russian war of aggression in the Ukraine will end anytime soon.
"I'm afraid the war will continue," said the former German UN ambassador and longtime foreign policy adviser to Merkel.
"The Ukrainian government has to say: For us, this is a solution in which we agree to a ceasefire." But the Ukrainians didn't want a dictated peace, they wanted their country back.
“So I fear we are headed for a World War I-like scenario
.
With a front line where artillery fired and fought heavily,” says Heusgen.
(cibo/dpa/AFP)
