No Regrets for Germany Blocking Ukraine's NATO Membership in 2008, Merkel Says

In her latest interview on Tuesday, Angela Merkel recalled her time in power and her way of dealing with the Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Merkel asserted that her decision of blocking Ukraine's NATO membership was the right decision as Putin considered Ukraine's presence in NATO as a "declaration of war”.

She added that Ukraine wasn't prepared enough for dealing with a strong invasion by a country like Russia.

“I would feel very bad if I had said: ‘There’s no point talking to that man [Putin]”, adding: "It is a great tragedy that it didn’t work, but I don’t blame myself for trying."

The politician added that she had no regrets for rejecting the presence of Ukraine and Georgia in the NATO in 2008, highlighting: “Ukraine was not the country that we know now. It was a Ukraine that was very split … even the reformist forces [Yulia] Tymoshenko and [Viktor] Yushchenko were very at odds. That means it was not a country whose democracy was inwardly strengthened.”

Merkel asserted that the NATO membership for Ukraine from the perspective of Putin “it was a declaration of war”.

Regarding the process of joining NATO, she expressed: “You cannot become a member of Nato from one day to the next,”

The politician continued: “It’s a process, and during this process I knew Putin would have done something to Ukraine that would not have been good for it.”

Merkel's statements came as part of her interview at the Berliner Ensemble theatre on Tuesday night which was her first public appearance since leaving the office.