"stood by her position at the NATO summit in Bucharest in 2008," when she had opposed Ukraine's membership in the North Atlantic Alliance. On 1 June 2022 Merkel made her first semi-public comments about political affairs since leaving office, at a retirement party for , the president of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB). As an aside she said "I cannot make this speech without mentioning the blatant violation of international law by Russia. My solidarity is with Ukraine, which has been attacked and invaded by Russia," also applauding "the efforts of the Federal Republic of Germany, the European Union, and the United States to put an end to this barbaric war of aggression led by Russia... The current events remind us that peace and freedom can never be taken for granted. The great idea of Europe as a community based on values and the defense of peace." On 7 June 2022 Merkel made her first public comments. In a Berlin theatre interview before a crowd of 2,000 with Der Spiegel journalist , she defended her legacy on Ukraine, and termed the Putinian aggression "not just unacceptable, but also a major mistake from Russia... It's an objective breach of all international laws and of everything that allows us in Europe to live in peace at all. If we start going back through the centuries and arguing over which bit of territory should belong to whom, then we will only have war. That's not an option whatsoever." She also said that by the end of her chancellorship in September 2021, it was clear that Putin was moving in the direction of conflict and that he was finished with the Normandy format talks. Personal life In 1977, at the age of 23, Merkel, then Angela Kasner, married physics student Ulrich Merkel (born 1953) and took his surname. The marriage ended in divorce in 1982. Her second and current husband is quantum chemist and professor Joachim Sauer, who has largely remained out of the media spotlight. They first met in 1981, became a couple later and married privately on 30 December 1998. She has no children, but Sauer has two adult sons from a previous marriage. Having grown up in East Germany, Merkel learned Russian at school and not English. She was able to speak informally to Vladimir Putin in Russian, but conducted diplomatic dialogue through an interpreter. She rarely spoke English in