"Ukraine currently does not meet requirements to join NATO"

He made the remarks at the end of the meeting of G7 nations in Japan in an interview with Die Welt on Sunday.

“Now it’s about supporting Ukraine, defending its country. For the future, there will also be talk about security guarantees, that is clear. These security guarantees include the question of how strongly we will equip Ukraine with weapons in the future. After the war, Ukraine will be equipped with weapons of Western production.

“It is also clear that we then have to discuss which security guarantees can be given in a post-war situation. But we are far from there yet. Now we are concentrating on what is coming up.”

When pressed on whether he would support Ukraine joining the Western military alliance — which would mandate all other member states to go to war on behalf of Ukraine if it were attacked — Scholz said that “NATO’s criteria include a whole series of conditions that Ukraine cannot currently meet.”

Joining NATO is a move that is considered a “red line” for the Kremlin.

MNA/PR