Olaf Scholz: Putin has not achieved a single target in Ukraine

MPs in the German Bundestag, Schelz, were told Putin's confidence that Russia would win and Ukraine would fall within days was a massive underestimation.

Putin “believed he could dry Europe's solidarity by closing our gas faucet,” said Scholz, but he erred “for Ukrainian courage, for Europe, for us, for the character of our democracies, for our will to resist the manias of great powers and imperialism”.

Scholz underlined the EU's support for Ukraine and said efforts to undermine this support were condemned to fail, indirectly sending a message to Hungary, which earlier this week gave up its objections to the aid to Kiev.
“Anyone who thinks he can undermine the values of B, to which every member state, blocking its foreign and security policies, is doomed to fail”, he said.

Scholz welcomes EU enlargement in Balkan countries

In his address, Scholz also said it was in Germany and Europe's interest that Balkan countries currently are not part of the EU membership in the bloc.

Many observers have warned that Russia might try to use its influence in the region to destabilise the EU.

On Wednesday, Scholz welcomed the resumption of EU accession talks with the six Western Balkan countries in recent months, as well as this week's decision to grant Bosnia EU candidate status, thus joining Albania, Moldova, the Republic of Northern Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, which aspire to join the EU.

Kosovo applied for EU

Even the Republic of Kosovo officially applied for membership in the European Union on Wednesday. The relevant document was signed by President Osmani, Prime Minister Kurti and Chief Prime Minister Konjufca in Pristina.

German Chancellor's comments come a week after Austria blocked Romania and Bulgaria, which joined the EU in 2007, to join the European Union's Schengen zone. / DW