German Chancellor Olaf Scholz sharply criticized the position of his election rival and leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Friedrich Merz on the issue of providing long-range "Taurus" cruise missiles to Ukraine, DPA reported, quoted by BTA.
"The opposition leader first wanted us to provide them, then, before the regional elections in East Germany, he suddenly decided that this was no longer necessary, and then in October he came to the Bundestag with some kind of ultimatum for their delivery," Scholz told the news portal "T-online" (t-online). "I find such a zigzag in positions dangerous."
The chancellor reaffirmed her position on the provision of the "Taurus" missiles to Ukraine, which Kiev has long insisted on Berlin.
Merz will be Scholz's main rival in the parliamentary elections on February 23. The CDU has a lead of about 10 percentage points over Scholz's German Social Democratic Party (SPD) according to recent surveys.
Scholz also warned against having too high expectations of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The chancellor said this in response to a question about his phone call with the Kremlin boss last month, for which he received criticism from Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky and others.
Asked to comment on whether he would speak to Putin again, Scholz indicated that he would. "We should not be naive and have no illusions. There are some people - and to be more precise, one person in particular - who are going around Germany and claiming that a result could be achieved with one or two talks," he added.
"I made it clear to him (Putin) that he cannot hope that our support for Ukraine will weaken," said Scholz, emphasizing that Germany is the second largest aid donor to Ukraine in the world after the United States.