New German Chancellor Opposes Ukraine’s Membership of NATO and EU While War Continues

Future German Chancellor Friedrich Merz supports Ukraine joining the EU and NATO, but only after the end of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

In an interview published in Handelsblatt on April 12, he noted that Ukraine “is “a very large European country, but it is a European country at war.”

Merz considers that “A country at war cannot become a member of NATO or the European Union…. ... For both to happen, the war must first end.”

He is also pessimistic about an early end to the war, as Russia traditionally ignores the cost of war in terms of human lives.

“The ruthless attrition of people has always been part of Russian policy,” Merz told Handelsblatt. That is why there is little hope “that the war will resolve itself at some point because the country has been bled dry or there are political reactions against the regime.”