On October 28, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in his program speech at the Bellevue Palace, said that Russian President Vladimir Putin is personally responsible for the outbreak of the biggest war in Europe since the Second World War and the destruction of the European security system. The speech was published by the press service of the Federal President of Germany.
Steinmeier emphasized that the war unleashed by the Russian president has turned the European security system into ruins, because Putin, in his imperial obsession, violated international law, defied borders and seized the lands of a sovereign state.
"Putin not only broke the rules, but also ended the game. No, he overturned the entire chessboard! ... Russia's attack is an attack on all the lessons the world learned from the two world wars," the German president said.
According to him, the events that began on February 24 testify to the final and bitter failure of many years of political efforts to prevent military conflicts. It was this date that became a turning point that plunged Germany into a new reality of insecurity, an energy crisis, and economic upheaval.
In addition, after February 24, the whole world in general became different, believes Steinmeier. However, the end of February became the most terrible for the Ukrainian people.
"I sat with some of them in the bomb shelter on Tuesday in Koryukivka. These people told me how on February 24 the horror of war broke into their ordinary lives: the huge noise of the blows, smoke, fire, sudden intense fear - these women and men were shaking, when they told me about it," Steinmeier said.
The President of Germany added that many Germans are waiting for peace. But the make-believe world, as Putin understands it, will be fictitious, because what the Russian army is doing for many Ukrainians means the arrival of a reign of terror.
"An unjust world is not a solution because it contains the seeds of new violence. Moreover, an unjust world would strengthen all those in the world whose thirst for power knows no laws and rules," Steinmeier concluded.
