Ukraine must win the war against Russia, regain lost territory, and be free to join military alliances, Friedrich Merz, favorite to become Germany’s next chancellor, said Thursday.
Merz said he wants peace in Ukraine but not “at the price of submission to an imperialist power” and stressed that “Ukraine must win the war.”
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“To me, winning means restoring territorial integrity,” said Merz, whose conservative CDU-CSU is leading in polls ahead of Germany’s Feb. 23 election.
“Winning also means that Ukraine must have complete freedom to choose its political and, if necessary, military alliances.”
Moscow has demanded Kyiv abandon its ambitions to join NATO and cede Ukrainian territory that Russia has occupied.
While Germany has been Ukraine’s second-biggest source of aid since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022, that support is now the subject of heated debate.
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The Moscow-friendly far-right Alternative for Germany and the hard-left Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht and Linke parties have heavily criticized aid to Kyiv.
Tensions have also flared within Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition government, with the Greens pushing for more help for Ukraine while Scholz remains more cautious.
Merz said that on many questions “open disagreement” within Scholz’s government had created confusion at home and abroad and promised this would not happen under his leadership.
The debate over aid to Ukraine comes as Donald Trump has returned to the White House, having promised to bring peace to Ukraine immediately, though without explaining how.
On the campaign trail, Trump strongly criticized military aid to Ukraine under President Joe Biden and has raised doubts over continued US commitment to NATO.
However, on Wednesday Trump threatened fresh sanctions on Moscow if it did not strike a deal to end the war.
Merz said that “Russia must not see any opportunity to continue this war in a militarily successful way.”
He added that “my impression from the last few days is that the new American administration also sees it this way, at least in part.”
On his other foreign policy priorities, Merz said he would seek to regain “the trust of our partners and allies” and “repair relations with our most important neighbors in Europe, Poland, and France”.
He said he wanted to “use the remaining two years of President Emmanuel Macron’s term to realize a vision of a sovereign Europe.”
On close ally Israel, whose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces an International Criminal Court arrest warrant, Merz said it was “inconceivable” that Berlin could not invite him and that he would do “everything possible to avoid the warrant being executed.”
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