French President Emmanuel Macron appeared to intimate that Germany and its Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, were at risk of being “cowards” over the war in Ukraine earlier this week.
This comes as European leaders have sought to demonstrate to the Kremlin that they will not be cowed by Russia’s resolve and commitment to continuing the conflict.
Chancellor Scholz, who was once dubbed by former UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace as “the wrong man in the wrong job at the wrong time”, is yet to explicitly call for Ukrainian victory over Russia.
Instead, he’s said: “Russia must not win and Ukraine must not lose”.
This hyper-cautious approach is likely driven by a long-standing fear of Russian aggression that stretches back generations, according to expert Matthew Karnitschnig who wrote for POLITICO: “The reason Scholz refuses to say he wants Ukraine to win, however, is the same reason he won’t deliver the country the gear it needs to achieve that goal: A deep-seated fear of Russia.”
The Red Army’s descent on Berlin and the subsequent horrors that befell the city’s population is not ancient history. Likewise, there are still fathers and grandfathers alive today who would be able to recall their brutal encounters with their eastern neighbours.
What’s more, East Germany was, until the dissolution of the Soviet Union, under the thumb of the Kremlin. And although the GDR was not subject to the same level of oppression as other Warsaw Pact states, like Poland, East Germany was nevertheless a totalitarian state under the overall command of the most powerful communist dictatorship the world has ever seen.
It is perhaps in this context that Scholz is so reluctant to provide Ukraine with all it needs to land a hammer blow – and it certainly could. Germany, although providing more aid to Ukraine in absolute terms, is only 11th in the world when you measure military aid by GDP.
Taurus missiles sent from Germany would enable Zelensky’s forces to fire on the Kursk Bridge, which connects Russia and Crimea.
Scholz has himself admitted that his refusal to send Ukraine the missiles it needs could constitute “a kind of involvement in war”.
His reticence to provide more support is shared by his electorate. According to Politico, almost 60 percent of Germans are against giving Ukraine Taurus missiles. In February the figure was 49 percent.
Meanwhile, one in five Germans think their country should be doing more to support Ukraine militarily, according to recent polling. But two in five believe that Berlin has sent enough weapons, and the number think it’s gone too far already.
