Former German Chancellor defended her legacy on Ukraine in her first major interview since leaving office, writes DW.

Angela Merkel defended her opposition to Ukraine and Georgia joining NATO in 2008. At the time, NATO pledged that the two countries would join at some point in the future, but declined to trigger the “membership action plan” to let them join the alliance within five to 10 years.

In April, Ukrainian President hit out at Angela Merkel and former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, suggesting their move had been a clear “miscalculation” that emboldened Russia.

In interview Merkel said that if NATO had granted them membership, Russian President Vladimir Putin could have caused “enormous damage in Ukraine”. As it was, Russia invaded Georgia less than six months after this declaration in Bucharest, instigating Europe’s first war in the 21st century. Merkel also cited systemic corruption issues in Ukraine as reasons to block their membership.

“President Zelensky is bravely fighting against corruption, but at the time, Ukraine really was a country governed by oligarchs, and so there you can’t just say “ok tomorrow we’ll take them into NATO””, - she said.

“It was not the Ukraine that we know from today. It was a Ukraine that was very, very divided politically. It was not a stable democracy. And when you accept a country into a NATO - and the Membership Action Plan is the clear precursor to that - you have to know that we are then prepared to really defend such a country if there is an attack.

Secondly, I was very sure … that Putin is not going to just let that happen. From his perspective, that would be a declaration of war”, - she said.