Tear down wall dividing free and unfree Europe: Zelensky urges Germany

Ukrainian President says German ties with Russia helped build the wall, invokes Berlin Airlift, fall of Berlin Wall in plea

Invoking the fall of the Berlin Wall, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday urged German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to tear down what he called a wall between "free and unfree" Europe and stop the war in Ukraine.

Speaking to the Bundestag by videolink, Zelensky appealed to Scholz to restore freedom to Ukraine, tapping Germany's collective memory with reference to the historic 1948-1949 Berlin Airlift and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Zelensky described a new wall "in the middle of Europe between freedom and unfreedom", which he said Germany had helped build, isolating Ukraine with its business ties to Russia