German Chancellor Olaf Scholz denounces Putin as warmonger and murderer in impassioned defense of Ukraine

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) met voters in the town of Falkensee on Friday. However, the brief rally turned into a strong and impassioned defense of Ukraine and an indictment of Vladimir Putin after some people at the rally began calling for peace with Russia without arms. Against repeated shouts, Chancellor Scholz appeared on the podium with unprecedented sharpness. “While you are shouting: Peace without weapons! Putin has killed countless citizens, children and seniors in Ukraine! That’s murder, to call it exactly!” the German chancellor roared on stage. For example, the server informed about the meeting Focus.

Scholz met with resistance from the participants at the meeting. Some called him a warmonger because of his support for Ukraine. “A warmonger? First, the warmonger here is Putin, he is the one who invaded Ukraine with 200,000 troops. It risks the lives of its citizens for an imperialist dream. Putin wants to destroy and conquer Ukraine. And he keeps looking! This is something that we, as friends of freedom, democrats, Europeans, will not allow!” Scholz responded sharply and passionately to the shouts.

⚡️BREAKING#Scholz of #Germany delivered a 🔥fiery speech🔥 calling Putin a warmongerer and a murderer.

This is the way. pic.twitter.com/Uo0llJ7SUL

— Fella Uchiha (@KadirHama)
June 3, 2023

“While you are shouting: Peace without weapons! Putin has gathered a huge number of tanks, guided missiles, rockets and aimed them at Ukraine. It destroys cities, villages, roads and railways! And he killed countless citizens, children and seniors in Ukraine! That’s murder, to call it exactly! And not what you are talking about here,” Scholz continued in defense of Ukraine’s support.

“In its imperialist dream of power, it risks the lives of its own citizens. We don’t know how many young Russian soldiers have already died because of his dream, but it could be as many as 100 to 150,000 people. How can someone destroy the lives of their own people like this? And all this just because one wants to be strong. This is irresponsible! It’s warmongering! It’s gun violence!” Scholz said on Friday.

The German chancellor – after an initial silence – after Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, gave a speech in the Bundestag, where he called the invasion a historic turning point. In the speech, he announced large investments in the military and a change from the previous cautious policy towards Russia.

Shortly after the invasion, Germany provided Ukraine with several lighter weapons, such as howitzers and anti-missile systems. For a long time, however, it refused to send, for example, modern German Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. The government perceived this as an escalation of the conflict. In the policy of not sending heavy weapons, the German government turned around only after pressure from the United States at the beginning of 2023. Scholz was criticized both in Germany and abroad, for example, by Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki, precisely for the slow aid to Ukraine. Scholz’s recent speech may thus show Germany’s ever-increasing departure from cautious positions towards Russia.