Merz warns Russia's push to destabilize Europe is being underestimated
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says the war in Ukraine is only part of a broader Russian effort to destabilize Europe's political order, and that many people in Germany underestimate the threat.
Archive image · Photo: Sandro Halank, Wikimedia Commons / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned that the threat from Russia is being underestimated. "Russia is in the process of destabilizing the entire political order of our European continent," Merz said Monday in an interview with Bloomberg. Many people in Germany underestimated this danger, he said.
Russia's aim went far beyond territorial gains in Ukraine, Merz said. "My biggest concern is the underestimated influence of Russia on our societies," the chancellor said, describing a threat "that is really there every day."
Merz noted that the United States had not provided money for Ukrainian weapons and equipment since early last year, with aid now coming from European and non-European countries in the so-called coalition of the willing. That was a heavy burden on budgets, but support would continue. "That shows that we can also manage this on our own," Merz said.