Merkel defends herself: Ukraine would have joined NATO earlier and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine would have erupted earlier.

On November 26th, Jinshi Data News reported that former German Chancellor Merkel said in an interview with BBC on the eve of the publication of her memoirs that if Ukraine had started to approach NATO in 2008, Russia might have launched an attack on it earlier. In the interview, Merkel strongly defended her decisions during her tenure. She said, ‘We might have seen military conflict earlier. I am very clear that Putin will not stand idly by and watch Ukraine join NATO. And at that time, Ukraine was not as prepared as it was in February 2022.’ She also expressed concerns about Putin’s new threat of using nuclear weapons. She said, ‘We must do everything possible to prevent the use of nuclear weapons.’