position in the federal government. For the 2021 elections, Kramp-Karrenbauer was later elected to lead the CDU campaign in Saarland. Shortly after having been elected, she announced her decision to step down from the parliament and instead make room for Markus Uhl who had failed to secure a seat. International crises In November 2020, Kramp-Karrenbauer stated that in the disputed territory of the Nagorno-Karabakh, "the first real drone war in human history has just been conducted between Azerbaijan and Armenia, with devastating consequences for the losing side." In April 2021, Kramp-Karrenbauer accused Russia of taking provocative actions with its troop buildup in Crimea and along its western border, while rejecting Russia's claim that it was responding to a massive NATO-led military exercise called Defender-Europe 21, one of the largest NATO-led military exercises in Europe in decades, which began in March 2021. In mid-2021, Kramp-Karrenbauer oversaw the German miliary's withdrawal from Afghanistan after almost two decades. In July 2021, she sent the frigate Bayern off on a seven-month voyage that will take it to Australia, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam, making it the first German warship to pass through the South China Sea since 2002. Armed forces During her time in office, Kramp-Karrenbauer publicly apologized to soldiers who for decades faced discrimination, discharge or convictions on the basis of their sexual orientation. In 2021, she successfully introduced legislation to rehabilitate those soldiers. In 2020, Kramp-Karrenbauer disbanded a company of the Special Forces Command (KSK) after police seized weapons and ammunition during a raid on the property of a KSK soldier. She later resisted calls for KSK to be disbanded altogether and instead pushed through the unit's reform. In June 2021, Kramp-Karrenbauer recalled 30 German soldiers from service at the NATO Enhanced Forward Presence in Lithuania, with ringleaders facing immediate dismissal, after an article in Der Spiegel accused them of making racist and anti-Semitic remarks and of sexual violence. Also in 2021, Kramp-Karrenbauer opened the Bundeswehr's first-ever Air and Space Operations Centre (ASOC) in Uedem, expanding Germany's existing space situation center into the new structure. Popularity During Kramp-Karrenbauer's tenure as Minister-President of Saarland, she had constantly high approval ratings in the low to mid-70's among her constituents. She was the most popular politician in Saarland according to Infratest dimap from November 2010 until her departure as Minister-President. Kramp-Karrenbauer was considered one of the most popular state government leaders nationwide. When entering federal