{"id":1302101,"date":"2025-10-06T12:19:41","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T09:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/unexpected-conclusion-merkel-linked-the-covid-19-pandemic-to-the-start-of-putin-s-invasion-of-ukraine\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T12:19:41","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T09:19:41","slug":"unexpected-conclusion-merkel-linked-the-covid-19-pandemic-to-the-start-of-putin-s-invasion-of-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/unexpected-conclusion-merkel-linked-the-covid-19-pandemic-to-the-start-of-putin-s-invasion-of-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cUnexpected conclusion\u201d: Merkel linked the COVID-19 pandemic to the start of Putin\u2019s invasion of Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the coronavirus pandemic in 2020-2021 complicated diplomatic contacts and became an indirect factor in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Global restrictions prevented EU leaders from meeting Vladimir Putin in person and seeking compromises to preserve the peace.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is reported by Junge Freiheit<\/a> .<\/p>\n

Merkel claims that the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly changed world politics and influenced the start of the war in Ukraine, and explained that due to lockdowns and restrictions on contact, politicians could no longer exchange views face to face.<\/p>\n

“The pandemic changed world politics. We could no longer meet, we could no longer speak to each other directly – it made many things impossible,” Merkel noted.<\/p>\n

She believes that the lack of direct contact with Putin, who did not attend the G20 summit in 2021 due to fear of infection, has made it difficult to build trust and resolve diplomatic conflicts. The former Chancellor emphasized that because of this, Europe has not been able to convince the Russian president to abandon preparations for a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Journalists described Merkel’s position as a “striking hypothesis,” as the politician suggests that without the COVID-19 pandemic, Putin might not have started the war in 2022. Merkel rhetorically asked, “Would Putin have invaded Ukraine if there had been no coronavirus?”<\/p>\n

In her opinion, global lockdowns and self-isolation of heads of state have shaken the diplomatic balance, which contributed to the escalation of tensions and the realization of the Kremlin’s imperial ambitions.<\/p>\n

Merkel previously stated that Kyiv should begin peace talks with Moscow when Ukraine finds itself in a “favorable situation,” but at the same time , Russia cannot be allowed to win the war.<\/a><\/p>\n

At the same time, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel once again justified friendly relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin by the “need” to buy gas cheaper<\/a> , even despite the war in Ukraine, she believes that her policy “was correct.”<\/p>\n

Also follow \u201cPryamim\u201d<\/strong> on Facebook<\/a> , Twitter<\/a> , Telegram<\/a> , and Instagram.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the coronavirus pandemic in 2020-2021 complicated diplomatic contacts and became an indirect factor in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Global restrictions prevented EU leaders from meeting Vladimir Putin in person and seeking compromises to preserve the peace. This is reported by Junge Freiheit . Merkel claims that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":846639,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76871,76872,76875,76885],"class_list":["post-1302101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-2","category-news-feed","category-other-news","category-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1302101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1302101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1302101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/846639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1302101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1302101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}