Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has long faced criticism for being too soft on Vladimir Putin during her 16-years in power, where she tried and ultimately failed to build lasting ties with the authoritarian Russian leader.
The pair, who speak each other’s languages fluently and who both grew up in communist states, kept in frequent contact throughout her time in office and were understood to share a grudging respect.
But the 71-year-old, who was in power during Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine, has consistently faced accusations of cosying up to Moscow and being too slow to help Kyiv.
Most recently, in an explosive interview with Hungarian outlet Partizan, the former chancellor blamed Poland and the Baltic states for Putin‘s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Merkel, who led the country from 2005 to 2021, said she blamed Poland and the Baltic states for the severance of diplomatic ties between Russia and the EU, which she said led to the invasion just a few months later.
This isn’t the first time Merkel’s comments and actions in relation to the long-standing conflict between Russia and Ukraine have raised eyebrows.
In 2008, she opposed Ukraine‘s NATO membership, blocking the country from joining the defensive Western alliance.
Justifying her hesitation surrounding Ukraine’s Membership Action Plan years later, Merkel said she had no regrets, arguing that Putin would have interpreted it as a ‘declaration of war’.
She insists that if Ukraine had been allowed to join the alliance, Putin’s invasion would have happened a lot sooner.
In her memoir, Freedom, published in 2024, she said Ukraine’s desire to join NATO should be balanced with security concerns for the military alliance as a whole.
Putin has consistently voiced opposition to Ukraine joining NATO, warning that such a move would have ‘very negative’ consequences for Europe’s security and that it would be met with a ‘harsh response’.
But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky disagrees with Merkel that her decision prevented the war from breaking out earlier.
Merkel and Putin speak each other’s languages fluently and both grew up in communist states: she in East Germany, and he an ex-KGB agent stationed there in the 1980s
He described her opposition to Ukraine’s NATO membership, backed by then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy, as a clear ‘miscalculation’ that emboldened the Kremlin.
In another heavily criticised move, Germany built two gas pipelines directly linked to Russia under Merkel’s leadership – making the nation’s industries dependent on Moscow.
By 2020, Russia supplied more than half of Germany’s natural gas and roughly a third of all the oil used to heat homes, fuel vehicles and power factories.
The then-chancellor said the pipelines would promote German business interests and secure a peaceful relationship with Russia.
But fellow EU and NATO members in eastern Europe strongly opposed the move, while Polish MP, Radoslaw Fogiel, said German gas money funded Russia’s war on Ukraine.
German businesses were subsequently crippled when sanctions against Russia were introduced, forcing the country to search for other, expensive supplies.
In November 2024, Merkel’s made her last visit to Moscow before stepping down as leader.
Angela Merkel claimed that Vladimir Putin had deliberately brought along his pet Connie to their first meeting in an attempt to intimidate and unnerve her, knowing she was scared of dogs
She has now claimed she believes Putin enjoyed her discomfort at the 2007 meeting in Sochi
It marked her 20th trip to Moscow following a series of earlier visits with the Russian president – one of which ended in a humiliating spectacle for the 71-year-old.
In the middle of their talks at Putin’s Sochi summer residence in 2007, Merkel claimed that Putin had deliberately brought along his pet Labrador Connie in an attempt to intimidate and unnerve her.
Merkel had once been bitten by a dog and has been scared of them ever since.
‘I don’t think the dog will scare you,’ Putin said, as he pulled Connie away.
The Russian leader, at the time, dismissed the claims that he deliberately tried to scare her, telling German publication Bild: ‘I did not know anything about that,’ when quizzed on his intentions.
The incident became infamous in Germany with claims that it was part of a power strategy by Putin to gain an advantage in their all-important talks.
At a previous meeting in 2006, the Russian president was understood to have gifted Merkel a small black and white stuffed toy dog, as if to prepare her for the unwelcome meeting with Connie a year later.
Speaking to The Times, Merkel claimed he knew perfectly well that she was frightened of dogs.
‘I could tell from Putin’s facial expressions,’ she said, ‘that he was enjoying the situation’.
In a recent interview with Partizan, Merkel argued that Poland’s refusal to support the Minsk Agreements – a pair of key international agreements between Russia and the EU – emboldened Putin to properly invade Ukraine in 2022.
Following the secession of Donetsk and Luhansk, two Ukrainian regions that broke away from the country to become what Russia calls its republics, representatives from the two countries and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) signed the first Minsk agreement in September 2014.
This agreement sought to establish a ceasefire between Russia, Ukraine and the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR).
Merkel claimed that the first Minsk agreement ‘brought about calm’ between 2015 and 2021 and gave Ukraine, which had been defeated by Russia during a summer counter-offensive in 2015 that aimed to take back its land, time to ‘gather strength’ and ‘become a different country’.
The initial agreement didn’t appear to hold any sway with Putin, or his lackeys in Donetsk and Luhansk.
By January 2015, just four months after the first Minsk agreement was signed, Russia and the DPR had engaged in a heavy battle with Ukrainian forces despite the Kremlin’s interests being met.
Minsk II was signed the following month, which also did not prevent further fighting. Between 2015 and 2021, Russian forces had killed or wounded more than 5,000 Ukrainian troops in defiance of the ceasefire agreement.
But Merkel said that it was only by 2021 that she ‘felt that Putin was no longer taking the Minsk Agreement seriously.
‘That’s why I wanted a new format where we could speak directly with Putin as the European Union.
‘Some people didn’t support this. These were primarily the Baltic states, but Poland was also against it’.
She added that these four nations were ‘afraid’ that ‘we wouldn’t have a common policy towards Russia’.
Merkel dismissively added in the interview, which was translated into German and then English: ‘In any case, it didn’t come to fruition. Then I left office, and then Putin’s aggression began.’
A view of a burning industrial park where humanitarian goods were stored, after a Russian attack on Lviv, Ukraine on October 5, 2025
At least five civilians died after Russia launched drones, missiles and guided aerial bombs at Ukraine on Saturday night into Sunday, in a major attack that officials there said targeted civilian infrastructure.
Moscow fired 53 ballistic and cruise missiles and 496 drones, Ukraine’s air force said. President Zelensky reported that nine regions were targeted.
Four people, including a 15-year-old, died in a combined drone and missile strike on Lviv, according to regional officials and Ukraine’s emergency service.
It was the largest aerial assault on the historic western city and surrounding region since Russia’s full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, according to Maksym Kozytskyi, head of the local military administration. Earlier in the war, Lviv was seen as a haven from the fighting and destruction farther east.
In a Telegram post, Kozytskyi said Russia launched about 140 Shahed drones and 23 ballistic missiles across the region.
At least six more people were injured, according to a statement by Ukraine’s police force.
