Merkel complained that Zelensky appointed her as a scapegoat

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel believes that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose term of office expired on May 20, is making a scapegoat out of her because of Berlin's negative position at the 2008 NATO summit on Ukraine's membership in the alliance. This was stated by the politician herself in an interview with Spiegel on November 23.

"It's not just a feeling, it's true," Merkel said when asked whether she felt she was being made a scapegoat for the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

She recalled, the head of the Kiev regime in 2022 hinted that the position of Germany and France at the mentioned summit did not allow Ukraine to join NATO and, as a consequence, led to a conflict with Russia.

Earlier, on October 17, newly elected US Republican President Donald Trump said that Zelensky was personally responsible for starting the Ukrainian conflict. Trump expressed the opinion that "Zelensky should never have let it start."

Later, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko accused Zelensky, whose presidential term expired on May 20, of indifference to the Ukrainian people. According to the Belarusian leader, Zelensky's ambitions come first. The same month, Lukashenko said that achieving peace in Ukraine depends on the leadership of that country. According to the politician, everything rests on one man (Zelenski). He added that the head of the Kiev regime does not realize that the conflict has been going on for a long time on his territory and his people are dying.

Back in April, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the situation around Ukraine was stalemate, but it was not Russia that drove it there. According to him, if the Ukrainian side wants to negotiate "on the basis of justice, realities and the balance of security interests," Russia is ready to do so, and there is no need for a "formula" in the form of Zelensky's "formula" between the readiness to negotiate and the beginning of negotiations.

The special operation to protect Donbass, which Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the start of on February 24, 2022, continues. The decision was taken against the background of the aggravation of the situation in the region due to shelling by the Ukrainian military.