German chancellor candidate Merz shocked by Trump's statements on Ukraine

Friedrich Merz, the candidate for German chancellor from the opposition CDU/CSU bloc, has said he was shocked by the statements made by US President Donald Trump regarding Russia’s war against Ukraine.

As reported by Tagesschau, Merz described Trump's words as "a classic case of switching the perpetrator with the victim".

"This is the Russian narrative; this is how Putin has framed it for years, and honestly, I am shocked that Donald Trump has now, apparently, adopted it himself," Merz said. 

Merz stressed the importance of Europeans agreeing on a joint strategy to address the issue "very, very quickly".

Merz believes that pleading for a seat at the negotiating table is the wrong approach.

"Now we must create our own weight," he concluded.

Following Trump’s statements, several European leaders and individual members of the US Republican Party have spoken out in defence of Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

On 21 February, the European Commission reaffirmed that it does not question the fact that Russia is the aggressor state.

Trump recently claimed that Ukraine "should not have started the war".