“It’s not a Berlin Wall — it is a Wall in central Europe between freedom and bondage and this Wall is growing bigger with every bomb” dropped on Ukraine, Zelensky told MPs.
Appearing on a screen in his now trademark khaki T-shirt with dark rings under his eyes, Zelensky was welcomed by MPs in the Bundestag lower house with a standing ovation. In a speech steeped in historical imagery from Germany’s triumph over its Cold War division, Zelensky addressed Chancellor Olaf Scholz directly with a call for greater solidarity with Ukraine.
“Dear Mr Scholz, tear down this Wall,” he implored, evoking US President Ronald Reagan’s 1987 appeal to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate. “Give Germany the leadership role that you in Germany deserve.”