German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Wednesday reiterated his government's support for Ukraine, as he sought to distance himself from the far-right, pro-Russian Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which overwhelmingly won a key state election last weekend.
"We support Ukraine and we will continue to support it, because it is also defending our freedom," Merz told lawmakers during the general debate of Budget Week.
He accused AfD co-leader Alice Weidel, who had opened the debate as leader of the biggest opposition party, of a "downright grotesque reversal of perpetrator and victim" in the party's pro-Russian stance.
Weidel had called on Merz to push for peace negotiations between Kiev and Moscow, accusing him of engaging in "war propaganda against Russia."
Merz said: "Nobody has threatened Russia - not NATO, not the European Union, not Germany.
"The only thing that truly threatens Russia and [President Vladimir] Putin is the appeal of democracy.
"We will continue to defend our freedom," Merz said, noting that the recent discovery of an explosives-laden drone at Leipzig airport, which Berlin has officially blamed on Moscow, had given this objective a whole new urgency.