The images suggest a civilian massacre in Bucha, a Kyiv suburb. The Ukrainian government holds Russian troops accountable. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also blames former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He invited her to Bucha to see for herself “what the 14-year policy of concessions to Russia has resulted in.”

Merkel, along with France’s then-president Nicolas Sarkozy, helped block NATO’s invitation to Ukraine to join the alliance during a summit in Bucharest 14 years ago. They saw it as a challenge to Russia.

That decision, according to Zelenskyy, was a “miscalculation” that has resulted in Ukraine “fighting for our lives in the most horrific war in Europe since World War II.”

Despite the rejection, NATO allies agreed at the summit on an unspecified timeline for Ukraine and Georgia to join the alliance.

Despite Crimea, Nord Stream 2 will proceed.

After Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, Merkel’s government continued to deny Ukraine weapons deliveries. Simultaneously, Germany approved the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline beneath the Baltic, which meant less gas potentially passing through Ukraine, where the country earns transit fees.

“How else should Moscow interpret this other than as tacit acceptance of a violent border shift?” Henning Hoff, the executive editor of Internationale Politik Quarterly, a magazine published by the German Council on Foreign Relations, agreed.

Merkel’s silence on the issue has been noted by Germany’s EU partners, including Poland.

“You haven’t said anything since the beginning of the war, Ms. Chancellor,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said. “German policy over the last ten to fifteen years has resulted in today’s Russia enjoying a strength based on its monopoly on the sale of raw materials.”

Olaf Scholz, Merkel’s successor, has also blocked important European Union sanctions, he said.

Foreign policy as deception

The criticism extends beyond Germany’s previous and current chancellors. Germany’s president and former foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, has also been accused of cozying up to Russia.

“Regardless of what happened, the relationship was fundamental, even holy,” Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, wrote in the German daily Tagesspiegel. “Even an unprovoked war is meaningless.”

It is among the harshest criticisms ever leveled at a German official by an ambassador.

The German foreign, security, and trade policies of the last 30 years are being called into question. “Much too much chit-chat with the Kremlin and far too little hardball,” Melnyk wrote.

“Since Putin’s election, every German government has signaled that a good relationship with Moscow is more important than Ukraine’s fate. This fueled the Kremlin’s attack “According to Stephan Bierling, a political scientist at the University of Regensburg.

Critics, including the United States and EU countries, have pointed out that Germany’s “Wandel Durch Handel” (change through trade) policy extends not only to dealings with Russia but also with China. They have warned that unrestricted engagement will not result in the desired liberalization of these autocratic regimes.

Recognizing and admitting errors

Since then, Steinmeier has admitted that many aspects of Germany’s Russia policy were “bad assessments.” He claimed that sticking to Nord Stream 2 had cost the country credibility, but that it was impossible to predict Putin’s reaction.

The second Chechen War, which was raging when Putin took office, was already evidence of his “criminal, hyper nationalist” personality, according to Hoff.

Merkel, through a spokesperson, reiterated her decision to block Ukraine’s NATO membership, which remains the alliance’s general position, even as many of its members send weapons to Ukraine to fight Russian troops. This includes Germany, which has reversed its policy of not supplying weapons to parties actively engaged in conflict.

Room for negotiation

Despite harsh criticism and calls to strengthen the Bundeswehr, Germany is still interested in playing a diplomatic role. Melnyk told the news agency Reuters that in negotiations with Putin, “we need Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s personal leadership.” “This would be a litmus test for Germany’s new foreign policy.”

The Ukrainian ambassador has also expressed support for the Normandy Format, a peace initiative launched by Merkel that includes France, Germany, Ukraine, and Russia, and Melnyk wants Scholz to continue.

That comes with one condition: the Ukrainians want to include the US in the talks, which the EU powers have been reluctant to do thus far.