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Olaf Scholz: "Putin wants to subdue Ukraine"
Photo: Britta Pedersen / AFP
Chancellor Olaf Scholz commemorated the end of the Second World War 77 years ago in a TV speech recorded in the afternoon.
Scholz also used the speech to explain his Russia policy in view of the war in Ukraine.
The Second World War cost more than 60 million victims, Scholz said, according to the text of the speech that had been distributed in advance.
Germans would have committed this crime against humanity.
»It is all the more painful to witness how today, 77 years after the end of the Second World War, brute force is once again breaking the law in the middle of Europe.
How Russia's army kills men, women and children in Ukraine, reduces cities to rubble and even attacks those who are trying to escape.«
May 8th is therefore like no other this year, said Scholz.
In recent years, Germany has striven for reconciliation with Ukrainians and Russians, both peoples fought together at the time to defeat murderous German National Socialism.
"Now, however, Russia's President Putin wants to subdue Ukraine, destroy its culture and identity."
The central German lesson from Nazism (»Never again!«) can therefore only mean in the current situation: »We defend justice and freedom – on the side of those who are attacked.
We support Ukraine in the fight against the aggressor.« Germany is helping to put an end to the violence, said Scholz.
There should not be a Russian dictated peace.
"The Ukrainians won't accept it - and neither will we."
Putin, said Scholz, will not win the war, Ukraine will survive.
»Freedom and security will triumph – just as freedom and security triumphed over bondage, violence and dictatorship 77 years ago.
Contributing to this to the best of our ability today means
›
Never again!
‹
.
Therein lies the legacy of May 8th.«
In the speech, Scholz referred to the arms deliveries to Ukraine and the EU sanctions against Moscow;
he expressly thanked the Germans for their willingness to take in Ukrainian refugees.
And he addressed concerns about an escalation of the war.
It would be wrong to dismiss this, said Scholz.
»At the same time, fear must not paralyze us.«
He swore to ward off harm from the German people, said Scholz.
That there should be no more world wars is also one of the lessons learned from May 8th.
For him, this resulted in four principles:
Germany must not dare to go it alone.
German defense capability must be maintained.
The federal government will not do anything “that harms us and our partners more than Russia”.
And he will not make any decision that would turn NATO into a war party.
Scholz described the fact that Putin equated his war of aggression with the fight against National Socialism as "falsifying history and infamous".
It is "our duty" to state this clearly.
Putin keeps talking about wanting to "denazify" Ukraine.
The motif plays a central role in Russian propaganda – even though a Jew, Volodymyr Zelensky, is President of Ukraine.
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