Germany is the West’s weakest link against Putin

Two massive security scandals this weekend have given a shot in the arm to Putin’s war on Ukraine. Yet again they have exposed Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Germany as the West’s weakest link in its ongoing confrontation with Russia.

Scandal Number One came when the loose-lipped Chancellor revealed that British and French troops were in Ukraine helping the embattled country’s soldiers operate long range Storm Shadow cruise missiles targeting the Russian invaders. Explaining why Germany would not supply Taurus missiles, its own version of the Storm Shadow system, to Ukraine, Scholz said that doing this would make Germany an active participant in the war.

Scholz’s careless talk potentially put the lives of British troops in peril and immediately drew a storm of criticism from his allies and political opponents. Tory MP Tobias Elwood, former chairman of the Commons Defence Committee, accused him of a ‘flagrant breach of intelligence’ designed to deflect attention from German reluctance in arming Ukraine.