Scholz vows to support Ukraine, says time has come for talks

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said this in the Bundestag on Wednesday during a debate on the country's budget for the next year, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"It is right that we support Ukraine for as long as it takes, and we will do so," the politician said.

He noted that Germany would continue to do this at the expense of its own funds and with the help of a $50 billion loan that the G7 countries approved this summer. Using this money, Ukraine will be able to do what is necessary for its defense, the chancellor added.

"And at the same time, we will do everything to make it possible to achieve peace, a just peace, not a dictated peace, not surrender, but the one that respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine as a country that was attacked," Scholz said.

He said a lot had been done for this and added that a number of conferences and eventually a peace summit in Switzerland had been held.

"And now the moment has come, the time has come for us to look at what the possibilities are. And it is right when the Ukrainian president says: we need the next peace conference at which Russia will also sit at the table. And this is a task that we have to cope with at the moment," Scholz said.

He called it terrible that 300,000-400,000 Russian soldiers had been killed or seriously injured just so that one day it was written in the history textbooks that their leader increased Russian territory by a couple of square kilometers.

The chancellor also admitted that the right-wing populists have the support of a considerable part of the population of Germany, not least because these people do not share the opinion of the need to support Ukraine, and it is impossible to turn a blind eye to this.