The day of
Russia’s attack on Ukraine—Feb. 24—marked a turning point in history, Mr. Scholz said.
“Putin wants to establish a Russian empire,” Mr. Scholz said Sunday. The key question now, he said in a rare show of emotion, is “whether we can summon the strength to set boundaries to warmongers like Putin.”
Germany, he said, would fight to protect European democracy from Russia and defend “every square meter” of NATO’s territory. Like all NATO countries including the U.S., Germany has said it won’t intervene militarily in Ukraine. But Berlin and other Western capitals
are increasingly looking to aid Ukraine by all means short of direct involvement in the fighting.
Such rhetoric hasn’t been heard in the Reichstag building, the historic seat of Germany’s Parliament, in the post-World War II era, according to historians. It triggered both heckling from some opposition politicians and thunderous ovations from the majority of legislators.
Mr. Scholz vowed to cut Germany’s reliance on Russian energy, a reversal of a decadeslong policy that enabled Berlin access to cheap energy but tied it ever closer to Moscow. Previous governments helped build two underwater pipelines to pump natural gas directly from Russia into Germany. Berlin currently gets more than half of its natural gas and a quarter of its oil from state-controlled Russian exporters.
Having already
suspended a pipeline known as Nord Stream 2, a flagship Russo-German project that would have replaced gas pumped overland through Eastern Europe, including Ukraine...
...On Saturday, Germany’s Mr. Scholz broke with the country’s previous refusal to send Ukraine weapons, promising to supply Stinger and antitank missiles.
Now, Germany is talking about a rearmament of its own forces that was unthinkable just days ago...
...Mr. Scholz announced the imminent investment of roughly $113 billion in new weapons systems, including Israeli drones and U.S. F-35 warplanes, to strengthen the West’s ability to deter Moscow. The chancellor also pledged to reduce Germany’s dependence on Russian gas imports by financing two major liquefied-natural-gas terminals on its northern coast and creating a strategic gas reserve...
...Since Mr. Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine, Mr. Scholz’s government coalition of his center-left Social Democrats, the environmentalist Greens and the pro-business Free Democratic Party has put an end to some entrenched policy taboos. Those include agreeing to send lethal weapons to Kyiv and suspending Nord Stream 2.