Berlin doing everything to prevent war escalation - Scholz

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said this on Thursday as he spoke with residents of Erfurt, Thuringia, Ukrinform reports.

"With all the decisions we make, we prevent escalation, the war between Russia and NATO; we make sure that the war remains the one between Russia and Ukraine. But we support Ukraine, which is defending itself," said Scholz.

He emphasized that "Germany pursues a very responsible policy."

The chancellor noted that Russia attacked Ukraine for a deeply imperialistic motive – they simply want to grab a piece of the territory, as it happened in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. And this is not fiction, Putin said and wrote about all this himself, publicly, emphasized the chancellor. Putin considers Ukraine, as well as Belarus, to be parts of Russia.

However, the borders that have formed today in Europe, that have taken shape, have been recognized. And if countries that "have reason" to say that part of the territories of other states belong to them, start to do as Russia did, "there will be a fire that we will not be able to put out."

"This is a threat posed by Russia's war of aggression," said the head of the German government.

He added that even if the members of the international community have very different views on certain things and do not agree with each other on everything, they all have a consensus that borders cannot be moved by force. Putin challenged this, the politician noted.