{"id":2887,"date":"2025-02-22T00:01:13","date_gmt":"2025-02-22T00:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/trumps-ukraine-remarks-shocking-echo-russian-narratives-german-opposition-leader-says\/"},"modified":"2025-02-22T00:01:13","modified_gmt":"2025-02-22T00:01:13","slug":"trumps-ukraine-remarks-shocking-echo-russian-narratives-german-opposition-leader-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/trumps-ukraine-remarks-shocking-echo-russian-narratives-german-opposition-leader-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s Ukraine remarks ‘shocking,’ echo Russian narratives, German opposition leader says"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Trump's<\/p>\n

German opposition leader Friedrich Merz has criticized U.S. President Donald Trump’s statements about Ukraine, calling them “shocking” and aligned with Russian narratives, the German TV news program Tagesschau reported on Feb. 21.<\/p>\n

“This is the Russian narrative; this is how Putin has presented it for years, and I’m frankly shocked that Donald Trump has now apparently embraced it himself,” Merz, the leading candidate for chancellor in the upcoming Feb. 23 parliamentary election, said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trump has made multiple false claims about Ukraine<\/a> in recent days, including calling President Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator<\/a>” and accusing him of refusing to hold elections.<\/p>\n

His remarks ignore the fact that Ukraine’s constitution prohibits elections under martial law<\/a>, which has been in effect since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in 2022.<\/p>\n

On Feb. 18, Trump appeared to place responsibility<\/a> for the ongoing war on President Volodymyr Zelensky’s wartime leadership. Merz described Trump’s comments as “a classic substitution of the criminal for the victim.”<\/p>\n

The criticism comes as tensions between Kyiv and Washington escalate following U.S.-Russia talks in Riyadh<\/a> on Feb. 18. Neither Ukraine nor Europe<\/a> were represented at the talks.<\/p>\n

Merz<\/a> stressed that Europe must not passively seek a seat at the negotiations but rather assert its influence through diplomatic efforts. “We have to agree on a common strategy very, very quickly,” he said.<\/p>\n

As the chancellor candidate for Germany’s conservative CDU\/CSU alliance in the upcoming Feb. 23 elections, Merz has been a vocal critic of incumbent Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s<\/a> Ukraine policy.<\/p>\n

He has repeatedly urged the government to provide Kyiv with long-range Taurus missiles<\/a> and accused Scholz of being too hesitant in supporting Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Recent polls indicate<\/a> the CDU\/CSU is leading ahead of the elections, which were called after Scholz’s ruling coalition lost its parliamentary majority due to the departure of the Free Democratic Party (FDP).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n
Trump\u2019s envoy Kellogg praises Zelensky as \u2018courageous leader\u2019 after talks<\/div>\n
\u201cExtensive and positive discussions with (President Volodymyr Zelensky), the embattled and courageous leader of a nation at war, and his talented national security team,\u201d Keith Kellogg said.<\/div>\n
\"Trump'sThe Kyiv Independent<\/span>Martin Fornusek<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\"Trump's<\/div>\n

<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

– https:\/\/kyivindependent.com\/tag\/ukraine\/rss\/<\/p>\n

This article appeared on the websitekyivindependent.com
\nThis article is taken based on Law no. 8\/1996 of Romania. News does not enjoy copyright, so they can be taken, this is our right to take news and information in its entirety and distribute them further. The content was made available to us through the rss mechanism
\nOriginal Content<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

German opposition leader Friedrich Merz has criticized U.S. President Donald Trump’s statements about Ukraine, calling them “shocking” and aligned with Russian narratives, the German TV news program Tagesschau reported on Feb. 21. “This is the Russian narrative; this is how Putin has presented it for years, and I’m frankly shocked that Donald Trump has now […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":2888,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1152,1],"tags":[329,547,1840,3829,27,3553,587,51,3725,1238,66],"class_list":["post-2887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kyivindependent","category-news","tag-echo","tag-german","tag-leader","tag-narratives","tag-opposition","tag-remarks","tag-russian","tag-says","tag-shocking","tag-trumps","tag-ukraine"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump's Ukraine remarks 'shocking,' echo Russian narratives, German opposition leader says - News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/trumps-ukraine-remarks-shocking-echo-russian-narratives-german-opposition-leader-says\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump's Ukraine remarks 'shocking,' echo Russian narratives, German opposition leader says - News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"German opposition leader Friedrich Merz has criticized U.S. President Donald Trump’s statements about Ukraine, calling them “shocking” and aligned with Russian narratives, the German TV news program Tagesschau reported on Feb. 21. “This is the Russian narrative; this is how Putin has presented it for years, and I’m frankly shocked that Donald Trump has now […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/trumps-ukraine-remarks-shocking-echo-russian-narratives-german-opposition-leader-says\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-02-22T00:01:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/02\/GettyImages-1929925182.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Misu Videan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Misu Videan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/trumps-ukraine-remarks-shocking-echo-russian-narratives-german-opposition-leader-says\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/trumps-ukraine-remarks-shocking-echo-russian-narratives-german-opposition-leader-says\/\",\"name\":\"Trump's Ukraine remarks 'shocking,' echo Russian narratives, German opposition leader says - News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/trumps-ukraine-remarks-shocking-echo-russian-narratives-german-opposition-leader-says\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/trumps-ukraine-remarks-shocking-echo-russian-narratives-german-opposition-leader-says\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/02\/GettyImages-2200011457-2-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-02-22T00:01:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-22T00:01:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/7d76dd7ecd7d235e40cce6ec62083b69\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/trumps-ukraine-remarks-shocking-echo-russian-narratives-german-opposition-leader-says\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/trumps-ukraine-remarks-shocking-echo-russian-narratives-german-opposition-leader-says\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/trumps-ukraine-remarks-shocking-echo-russian-narratives-german-opposition-leader-says\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/02\/GettyImages-2200011457-2-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/02\/GettyImages-2200011457-2-1.jpg\",\"width\":1240,\"height\":827},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/trumps-ukraine-remarks-shocking-echo-russian-narratives-german-opposition-leader-says\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Prima pagin\u0103\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Trump’s Ukraine remarks ‘shocking,’ echo Russian narratives, German opposition leader says\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/\",\"name\":\"News\",\"description\":\"Euro TV News Agency\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/7d76dd7ecd7d235e40cce6ec62083b69\",\"name\":\"Misu Videan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2584ffca062277b8497cf6c9182e423c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2584ffca062277b8497cf6c9182e423c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Misu Videan\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.ziaruldebanat.ro\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/author\/mihai_vidjean\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Trump's Ukraine remarks 'shocking,' echo Russian narratives, German opposition leader says - News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/trumps-ukraine-remarks-shocking-echo-russian-narratives-german-opposition-leader-says\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Trump's Ukraine remarks 'shocking,' echo Russian narratives, German opposition leader says - News","og_description":"German opposition leader Friedrich Merz has criticized U.S. President Donald Trump’s statements about Ukraine, calling them “shocking” and aligned with Russian narratives, the German TV news program Tagesschau reported on Feb. 21. “This is the Russian narrative; this is how Putin has presented it for years, and I’m frankly shocked that Donald Trump has now […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/trumps-ukraine-remarks-shocking-echo-russian-narratives-german-opposition-leader-says\/","og_site_name":"News","article_published_time":"2025-02-22T00:01:13+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/02\/GettyImages-1929925182.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Misu Videan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Misu Videan","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/trumps-ukraine-remarks-shocking-echo-russian-narratives-german-opposition-leader-says\/","url":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/trumps-ukraine-remarks-shocking-echo-russian-narratives-german-opposition-leader-says\/","name":"Trump's Ukraine remarks 'shocking,' echo Russian narratives, German opposition leader says - News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/trumps-ukraine-remarks-shocking-echo-russian-narratives-german-opposition-leader-says\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/trumps-ukraine-remarks-shocking-echo-russian-narratives-german-opposition-leader-says\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/02\/GettyImages-2200011457-2-1.jpg","datePublished":"2025-02-22T00:01:13+00:00","dateModified":"2025-02-22T00:01:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/7d76dd7ecd7d235e40cce6ec62083b69"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/trumps-ukraine-remarks-shocking-echo-russian-narratives-german-opposition-leader-says\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/trumps-ukraine-remarks-shocking-echo-russian-narratives-german-opposition-leader-says\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/trumps-ukraine-remarks-shocking-echo-russian-narratives-german-opposition-leader-says\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/02\/GettyImages-2200011457-2-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/02\/GettyImages-2200011457-2-1.jpg","width":1240,"height":827},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/trumps-ukraine-remarks-shocking-echo-russian-narratives-german-opposition-leader-says\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Prima pagin\u0103","item":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Trump’s Ukraine remarks ‘shocking,’ echo Russian narratives, German opposition leader says"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/","name":"News","description":"Euro TV News Agency","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/7d76dd7ecd7d235e40cce6ec62083b69","name":"Misu Videan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2584ffca062277b8497cf6c9182e423c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2584ffca062277b8497cf6c9182e423c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Misu Videan"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.ziaruldebanat.ro"],"url":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/author\/mihai_vidjean\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/02\/GettyImages-2200011457-2-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euro-tv.ro\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}