Polish and Baltic officials have reacted furiously to what they perceive as former German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s partly blaming them for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Their censure of Europe’s most important politician of the last two decades again exposes the failure of Merkel’s approach to Russia and further tarnishes her legacy as her flagship immigration and energy policies continue to be scorned and dismantled by her successors.

In an interview with Hungarian opposition media Partizán published on Friday, Merkel noted the refusal by Eastern European countries to permit direct talks between her, Russian President Vladimir Putin and French leader Emmanuel Macron when describing the lead-up to Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

“In June 2021, I felt that Putin was no longer taking the Minsk Agreement seriously. And that’s why I wanted a new format where we, as the European Union, could talk directly with Putin,” Merkel said.

At a European Council meeting that month, Merkel and Macron proposed direct negotiations with other leaders in response to the buildup of Russian troops near Ukraine’s border. But a coalition of Eastern European countries, including Poland, opposed the idea.

“This was not supported by some. It was mainly the Baltic states, but Poland was also against it,” she said. 

Merkel explained that these countries had been “afraid” that “we would not have a common policy toward Russia … In any case, it didn’t happen. Then I left office, and then Putin’s aggression began.”

Directly contradicting Merkel, former Latvian Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš said on Monday that at the time, many countries had not understood Russia, “including Germany and the former chancellor herself.

“I consistently told her that you cannot deal with Putin ‘in good faith,’ but she believed that the Baltic States were wrong. I was well aware of Merkel’s views, but I am astonished that after everything that has happened in Ukraine, she still thinks this way,” Kariņš said.

“Putin acts the way he acts, and the only options for the West are either to submit or to resist. It is surprising that the former German chancellor would say something like this today, when it should be obvious to everyone what kind of regime Russia is. I am glad that the new German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, does not share Merkel’s views,” he said.

Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said Russia bore sole responsibility for the conflict.

“Russia’s war against Ukraine is driven by one thing and one thing only: its refusal to accept the Soviet Union’s collapse and its unrelenting imperialist ambitions. Russia alone is to blame for this aggression,” he wrote in a post on X.

Merkel’s comments caused a barrage of reactions in Poland, particularly from right-wing MPs.

Former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, now deputy leader of the opposition nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, said: “Angela Merkel, through her thoughtless interview, proved that she is among the most harmful German politicians to Europe in the past century.”

Polish PiS MEP Waldemar Buda said: “When Merkel says she wanted to reach an agreement with Putin again, it would probably have led to the partition of Ukraine! They don’t understand that by doing business with Putin, they brought about the war!”

Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, the former Polish ambassador to Russia and current minister of regional policy from the centrist Poland 2050 party,  observed that Merkel’s statements only fueled Russian propaganda.

“Suggesting blame for the war because someone didn’t sit down with Russia on time and didn’t bow low enough to [Moscow] is absurd. It would have been even worse,” she said.

But former Polish Ambassador to the United States Marek Magierowski criticized the media for twisting Merkel’s words.

“The former chancellor only says that the Baltics and Poland did not agree to a new EU format of talks with Russia,” he wrote on X. “From that statement to the formulation that ‘Poland is co-responsible for Putin’s war’ is quite a long way.”

He pulled no punches in his assessment of Merkel, though, calling her political tenure “one big disaster for Germany and Europe.”

Merkel’s team did not immediately respond for a comment.