NATO Secretary General Rebukes Zelensky for Criticizing Scholz
Date: 2024-12-23 Author: Кирило Загоруйко Categories: WORLD
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte believes that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's criticism of Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz is unjustified. According to n-tv.de, Rutte said this in an interview with the dpa agency.
"I have often told Zelensky that he should stop criticizing Olaf Scholz because I think it is unfair," he said.
NATO Secretary General stressed that Germany's support for Ukraine is unprecedented and second only to the United States in terms of volume, and Ukraine "should be grateful to Scholz" for this.
"What Olaf Scholz has done is impressive. Scholz has contributed to the fact that Germany is second only to the United States in terms of military support for Ukraine - 28 billion euros, and according to some estimates even 34 billion. This is a huge amount, far ahead of many other countries, including large European economies," Rutte said.
At the same time, speaking about Scholz's position on the supply of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine, Rutte noted that he personally would have made a different decision and would not have imposed any restrictions on their use.
"In general, we know that such capabilities are very important for Ukraine," he said, stressing, however, that it is not up to him to decide what exactly the allies should supply.
He added that it is important for Germany to realize that its own values and collective security are at stake in its policy towards Ukraine. "If Ukraine had lost, we would have had to spend much more on defense to counter the Russian threat," he added.
Zelensky previously criticized Scholz, in particular, for the fact that he spoke on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has also repeatedly publicly expressed his incomprehension of the chancellor's refusal to supply Taurus cruise missiles.
