@pawian
That was a major mistake.
Agreed. But it was not part of a fiendish ploy as suggested.
@Ironside
Why the EU should follow your lead?
Because leading means also being willing to shoulder the burden and the costs of the endeavour. There is still a yearning amongst many Germans to become a large Switzerland - trading while staying out of conflicts and let other handle the rest. We were uncomfortable with leading during the Euro crisis but we had to because Germany was financially solvent, and the smaller countries were happy to hide behind us and let us deal with the Greek government. Whatever you may think of Merkel, she did not go to Minsk because she wanted to impose herself, but at the direct request of the Ukrainian president while the leaders of the countries that should have been there due to their commitment to the Budapest were either considered insufficient or had no interest.
If you are unhappy with Germany's preeminent role in the support of Ukraine (behind the USA of course), then your real criticism should be aimed at the countries who in your eyes should lead, yet contribute not enough to do so.
You can't deny that in the course of those talks
I can because that is something the German government constantly rejected to even contemplate. Putin wanted a second Yalta since 2014 in which he could divide Europe into such spheres. That is what he is still after. But he does not want to negotiate with Germany or any other European country, because those are not peers of Russia in his eyes. He wants to talk with the USA and China.
Germany tried the Normandy talks, in which Ukraine could negotiate with Russia as equals, backed to some (in hindsight too little) support by France and Germany.
This thinking in spheres of influence is something German politicians and the public generally abhors. The only strategic designs regarding Eastern Europe was a) to support the former Warsaw pact members in their democratic transition in order to be finally "surrounded by friends" in our history and b) try to do the same with Russia. With Russia the mistake was that it would be willing to abandon this kind of thinking for the right economic incentive.
Realistically, instead of having great designs it is more likely Merkel did not pay too much attention to Eastern Europe because there were seemingly more pressing concerns. The Euro crisis threatened the existence of the EU (it is easy to forget that shortly after Minsk II, there was another showdown with the Greek government over a potential Grexit), then came the refugee crisis followed by Covid. In hindsight those look almost trivial compared to what we are now facing, but that is not how they appeared back then.
and it was a correct assumption that Germany wouldn't lift a finger even if they could
Sure, but that is a charge that can be laid at pretty much every other country. Even the countries that had once guaranteed Ukraine's territorial integrity did very little to support Ukraine after 2014, and they did not have the foreign political tradition to not send weapons into combat zones.
Ukraine for the first year as Putin predicted.
Which year do you mean? Ukraine did not receive any practical aid from countries in 2014 and in 2022 Germany reversed course within days after the full-scale invasion and sent weapons to Ukraine.