Angela Merkel recalls Putin's fear of Ukraine joining NATO

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel writes in her memoir, Freedom: Memoirs 1954 - 2021, that Russian leader Vladimir Putin planned his invasion of Ukraine after her resignation in order to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO. Source: European Pravda, with reference to Die Zeit Details: When describing Putin, Merkel says that he struck her as a man desperate to be taken seriously.

"I perceived him as a man who did not want to be disrespected and was ready to pounce at any moment.

You may consider this childish and contemptuous, you may shake your head. But it meant that Russia would never disappear from the world map," she writes. At some point in the book, Merkel appears to suggest that Putin's decision to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was timed to coincide with her departure from office.

"You will not always be chancellor, and then they will join NATO," he said of Ukraine. "And I want to prevent this," Putin is quoted as saying in the book.

According to Merkel, some leaders in Central and Eastern Europe are engaging in wishful thinking: "They seem to want the country to just disappear, to not exist. I cannot blame them [...] But Russia, which has powerful nuclear weapons, still exists." In her memoir, Merkel also explains why she hindered Ukraine's efforts to join NATO.

The former German chancellor also describes the difficulties she encountered when talking to Donald Trump and says he is fascinated by authoritarian leaders, including Russia's Putin. 

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