ankbnwa

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."

Yes, it is tiresome. There was this famous Trump video where he opposed NATO members on the question of Nordstream 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JpwkeTBwgs

On social media it is spun as "the Germans laughed at him", when the person sitting in the middle opposite Trump is the Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg, NATO secretary and usually a willing US tool. It was all of Europe together.