White House ‘deliberately escalated’ clash with Zelensky: Merz

AFP | Berlin

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Germany’s likely next chancellor Friedrich Merz said Monday he thought US President Donald Trump had deliberately escalated last week’s angry clash with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky which shocked Kyiv’s allies.

In their Oval Office meeting on Friday, Trump berated Zelensky, telling him to be more “thankful” for US support against the invading Russian army in the threeyear-old war and demanding he “make a deal” with Moscow.

“According to my assessment this was not a spontaneous reaction to what Zelensky was saying but clearly a deliberate escalation,” Merz told reporters at a press conference about the White House meeting that also included US Vice President JD Vance.

Merz’s centre-right CDU/CSU alliance came first in last month’s election and is currently in talks with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) with a view to forming a government.