Zelensky blasts Merkel and Sarkozy for denying Ukraine NATO membership.

BRUSSELS — President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine lambasted the previous leaders of Germany and France, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, in a video deal with launched late on Sunday, seemingly blaming them for the deaths of Ukrainian civilians.

“I invite Ms. Merkel and Mr. Sarkozy to go to Bucha, to see what the coverage of 14 years of concessions to Russia has led to,” Mr. Zelensky mentioned, referring to the Kyiv suburb the place pictures surfaced over the weekend of our bodies mendacity within the streets after Russian forces withdrew. “See with your individual eyes the tortured and slain Ukrainians.”

Mr. Zelensky was talking, he mentioned, on the 14th anniversary of the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania, the place, after a serious inside debate, NATO promised membership within the alliance to Georgia and Ukraine however with out specifying when.

He blamed NATO nation politicians for harboring an “absurd concern” of Russia, including: “They thought that by refusing Ukraine, they might appease Russia, to persuade it to respect Ukraine and reside usually alongside us.”

Later, he insisted that he didn’t blame the West or anybody else besides the Russian troopers who he mentioned dedicated crimes in opposition to Ukrainians and those that gave them their orders. “However we’ve got the appropriate to speak about indecision,” he mentioned.

The Bucharest summit was marked by a debate over whether or not to offer Ukraine and Georgia a proper “membership motion plan” to information them towards qualifying for NATO membership. President George W. Bush favored doing so. Ms. Merkel and Mr. Sarkozy weren’t alone in arguing that neither nation was prepared, and that to increase membership plans to them would severely harm relations with Russia and President Vladimir V. Putin.

Mr. Bush’s protection secretary, Robert M. Gates, informed him that providing Georgia and Ukraine NATO membership “was actually overreaching” and, in keeping with his memoir, a case of “recklessly ignoring what the Russians thought-about their very own very important nationwide pursuits.”

Mr. Putin made the identical level in Bucharest, saying that Ukraine and Georgia becoming a member of NATO had been purple strains for him.

In a late-night compromise, all NATO member states agreed that the 2 international locations shouldn’t be supplied a membership motion plan, however had been promised membership in some unspecified time in the future sooner or later.

Fiona Hill, a Russia scholar who was then a U.S. authorities intelligence analyst, mentioned that the intelligence group tried to influence Mr. Bush to not make that promise, however failed. 4 months later, Russia went to struggle in Georgia. As for Ukraine, Ms. Hill mentioned, Mr. Putin “has been attempting to close that door ever since.”

Even after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and helped sponsor separatist rebels within the jap areas of Donetsk and Luhansk, NATO made no effort to carry Ukraine into line for membership. NATO international locations helped Ukraine practice and equip its military, and supplied vital financial and political assist, however with out membership, the nation remained unprotected by the alliance’s dedication to collective protection — leaving it in a “grey zone,” Mr. Zelensky mentioned on Sunday.

Ms. Merkel responded on Monday via a spokeswoman, who mentioned that she stood “by her choices in reference to the 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest.”

However Ms. Merkel additionally supported the efforts “to face by Ukraine and to place an finish to the barbarism and the struggle by Russia in opposition to Ukraine,” the spokeswoman added.

Mr. Sarkozy had no speedy remark. However Germany and France — and NATO as an entire — have made it clear even throughout this struggle that they’ve no real interest in preventing a nuclear-armed Russia on behalf of Ukraine. Each international locations, together with different NATO allies, have given Ukraine the weapons and different assist that Mr. Zelensky has used to attempt to beat again the Russian invasion.