NATO will not risk an escalation in the Ukraine war by intervening with military force, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at joint news conference in Berlin with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday.
“It is the core duty of the alliance to secure the safety of all members,” he said.
Germany is sending financial and humanitarian aid, as well as military goods, to Ukraine, but Berlin has stated repeatedly that it will not send fighter jets to help Ukrainian forces in their defense against the Russian invasion.
“The fate of people in Ukraine touches us deeply,” Scholz said following an address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the German parliament. “Putin brings horrible sufferings and death for the people in Ukraine ... We are standing with Ukraine."
Scholz added that Putin bears the sole responsibility for the deaths of young Russians in the military. “We are also touched by those many young Russians led by their own leadership oppose a senseless war," he said.
