Merkel is a product of the cold war. For her NATO expansion that includes Ukraine was unthinḱable, and most people who lived through the cold war would agree. She never promoted NATO expansion. She thought that through careful diplomacy both peace and trade could be maintained. The US interfered in that.

More importantly, the EU has imported Russian gas through various land pipelines all the time. Nordstream was supposed to secure against various disputes where Ukraine stole Russian gas:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia%E2%80%93Ukraine_gas_dis...

"Naftogaz admitted that because of harsh winter (lower than minus 30C) some natural gas intended for other European countries was retained and used for domestic needs."

It was really Schroeder who got us into that mess, and gas heating for homes was already very popular in the 1990s in Germany (and none of the home owners really asked or cared where that cheap gas is actually coming from).

Trump was laughed at because it was obvious that he wanted us to buy US gas at a premium instead - not because he was 'concerned' about Germany's dependence on Russian gas (and also - of course - because he's a blithering idiot).

In any case, the discussion is about the Baltics getting more independent from Russia (hooray!), not about Germany :)