Scholz warns Putin against ‘unforgivable’ use of chemical weapons

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has warned Russian president Vladimir Putin that deploying biological or chemical weapons in Ukraine would be “unacceptable and unforgivable”.

As Berlin announced plans to deliver another 2,000 rocket-launchers and 1,700 anti-aircraft guns to Ukraine on Wednesday, the German leader defended ongoing purchases of Russian energy. It made no sense, he said, to back oil or gas sanctions that “cause more damage to us” than Russia.

In telephone talks, the chancellor said he viewed a warning from the Russian leader, that the US and Ukraine are planning biological or chemical weapon attacks, as “an implicit threat that Putin himself is considering using such weapons”.

“In direct talks I warned President Putin against using biological or chemical weapons,” he told Die Zeit weekly. “That’s why it was important for me to tell him very clearly and directly: that would be unacceptable and unforgivable. Nobody should even think about that.”

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Since last month’s Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Scholz administration has suspended the operating permit of an undersea Russian gas pipeline to Germany.

‘Thicker sweater’

Berlin is rushing to diversify Germany’s energy supply and reduce its dependency on Russia, securing a new gas delivery contract with Qatar last weekend.

As Russia demanded that all its energy customers pay their bills in roubles, Mr Scholz warned that an “abrupt delivery stop poses massive dangers for the whole of Europe”.

“We are not talking about putting on a thicker sweater in winter, as some people joke,” he said. “It is about apartments, hospitals, nursing homes and schools no longer having heating at all; and industrial companies can no longer be supplied with energy, hundreds of thousands of jobs on the line.”

Last week Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy berated Mr Scholz and Bundestag MPs in a video address for putting their country’s prosperity before the lives of his people.

He urged Mr Scholz to “destroy” a new, metaphorical wall separating peaceful Europe from his war-torn country. But after his speech ended, instead of a response from Mr Scholz, the video stream was shut off and the Bundestag vice-president began reading out MP birthday greetings.

Defence boost

Mr Scholz conceded in Die Zeit that “in retrospect, it is clear to everyone that this was not the right thing to do”.

Before heading to the Nato summit in Brussels, the chancellor restated his promise to meet a “monumental challenge” – to take in a record number of Ukrainian refugees, nearly 250,000 and rising, while bolstering German defence spending.

Last month, Mr Scholz promised to boost annual defence spending above the Nato minimum, 2 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), and a €100 billion off-balance sheet fund for the armed forces.

The latter requires a constitutional change and support of two-thirds of MPs. Sensing an opportunity for leverage from the opposition benches, Friedrich Merz of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) said his party would back the plan under strict conditions, including detailed procurement plans.

“The spending has to be investment in the Bundeswehr, nothing else, the 2 per cent of GDP has to be reached permanently, not just once,” he said. “We will not issue a blank cheque for over €100 billion so you can do what you wish.”

German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock confirmed on Wednesday that another delivery of lethal weapons was on its way to support Ukraine.

“We are one of the largest suppliers of weapons in this situation,” she said. “It is not something that makes us proud but it is what we have to do to help Ukraine.”