German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has accused Russian dictator Vladimir Putin of trying to destabilize the West by testing its borders and carrying out sabotage, Reuters reports.
Merz said the entry of Russian drones into Polish and Romanian airspace was a trend that showed a desire to test the patience of Western countries. “Putin has long been testing the borders, he is sabotaging. He is spying, he is murdering, he is trying to unsettle us. Russia wants to destabilise our societies,” the chancellor said.
Merz said that Ukraine’s surrender to Russia was unacceptable, and that peace without freedom would only encourage Putin to seek his next target.
The German chancellor has previously called the Russian dictator a war criminal,
prompting the Kremlin to say that Merz’s opinion was irrelevant when it came to peace in Ukraine.
Moscow has denied that its forces committed war crimes in Ukraine and has dismissed as nonsense claims by Yulia Navalny, the widow of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, that her husband was murdered in prison.
Germany’s support for Ukraine has drawn criticism from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), whose leadership accused Merz on the 17th of September of “posing as an international politician and warlord.” Merz’s allies have said the AfD is turning into Russia’s fifth column.
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