​Germany must be prepared for an escalation in the situation in Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday, adding that his recent trip to China was worthwhile if only for the fact that it underscored the two countries’ common stance against the use of nuclear weapons, Reuters and Agerpres reported.

“Given the development of the war and Russia’s apparent failures on the rise, we must be prepared for escalation,” Scholz told a conference in Berlin organized by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

That escalation could include the destruction of infrastructure, he added.

During a visit to China earlier this month, Olaf Scholz and Chinese President Xi Jinping condemned threats to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

Scholz said the 100 billion euro defense fund announced after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was the result of a lesson learned about the German military’s defense stockpiling.

The Chancellor of Germany says that his country will no longer become dependent on anyone for energy

At the same time, the chancellor said that Germany will not make a “second mistake” by entering into an energy dependence similar to that created in recent years with Russia in the field of natural gas supplies, EFE reports.

“With Russia, we saw what it means to become dependent on a strategic resource like gas,” Scholz said at a forum organized by the Bavarian daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

“After many discussions with representatives of the German economy, I realized that such a mistake will not happen to us again,” admitted Chancellor Scholz, who explained at this forum what challenges the German economy is currently facing and his ambitions to further diversify sources of supply in in various industries.

“We will make efforts to ensure that the German economy and Germany’s position as a business center survive difficult times,” he summarized.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Germany has begun to sharply reduce its energy dependence on Russia.

Germany was left without imported gas from Russia

After previously 55% of all German gas imports came from Russia, Russian gas supplies fell to 9% in August and Germany now receives no Russian gas at all, according to the Federal Network Agency (BNA, according to the German acronym). .

Gas supplies from Russia were replaced by supplies mainly from Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium, EFE notes.

The Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which used to get gas from Russia to Germany, became unusable after it was damaged by underwater explosions in September. The explosions also damaged the recently built Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which was never used.

Russia has said it is ready to supply gas through the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which was not affected by the explosions, but the German government rejected the offer.

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