Merkel’s side of the story never made much sense to me.

Uncharitably you can say she didn’t give a shit about Ukraine/anybody else and knowingly let Russia do as they like, so long as Germany got their gas deliveries.

It was particularly annoying how she’d dismiss the UK/Poland/others as being misguided or Russophobic when they warned about Russia. As if Russia hadn’t invaded Ukraine in 2014 and used chemical weapons in the UK to assassinate someone.

Charitably you can say she was living in a fantasy land where she believed being nice to Russia, trying to integrate them into the west, and give them a platform would be an effective way to transform them into a progressive, democratic society. I can accept that in the 90s, but by the late 2000s it was clear that wasn’t happening.

Neither of those are a good look.