BERLIN - German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann acknowledged that Germany bears responsibility for the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine because it backed the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

"Knowing what we do today, the decision to pursue Nord Stream 2 following the annexation of Crimea in 2014 was Germany's contribution to the outbreak of the war in Ukraine," Buschmann said at the welcoming address of a G7 justice ministers meeting in Berlin.

He added that it is Germany's duty to "confront this truth directly" and "draw the right conclusions" from it.

A version of Buschmann's quote was also prominently shared on the justice ministry's Twitter profile.

The statement indirectly goes against Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who had long defended the pipeline. As recently as December of last year, Scholz labeled Nord Stream 2 a "private-sector project."

Buschmann hosted a joint meeting of the G7 justice ministers in Berlin on Tuesday. They decided that the judicial authorities of the G7 countries should cooperate more closely in the investigation of Russian war crimes in Ukraine.