The German chancellor has said that Germany, along with Ukraine’s other main western supporters, will remove range restrictions on weapons delivered to Kyiv for the first time, to enable it to defend itself against Russia.
Friedrich Merz said Germany, Britain, France and the US had lifted the restrictions to enable Ukraine to be better able to hit military targets on Russian territory.
“There are no longer any range restrictions on weapons delivered to Ukraine – neither by the British, nor by the French, nor by us, nor by the Americans,” he said on Monday, following Russia’s largest drone attack on Ukraine of the war to date.
“This means that Ukraine can now defend itself, for example, by attacking military positions in Russia … with very few exceptions, it didn’t do that until recently. It can now do that.”
In response, the Kremlin described the decision as “dangerous”, saying it would be detrimental to reaching any sort of peace agreement. “If these decisions have indeed been made, they are completely at odds with our aspirations for a political settlement,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
Merz, who has been in power for just under three weeks, would, however, not be drawn on whether Germany was preparing to send its long-range Taurus missiles to Kyiv. In opposition he had advocated for giving the missiles to Ukraine, which his predecessor, Olaf Scholz, had refused to do.
Since entering office, Merz has taken a more cautious approach, saying Germany was in danger of giving too much away to Moscow if it talked openly about its plans, and arguing that Putin, a fluent German speaker, should not be able to find out what Berlin’s intentions were simply by watching the German TV news. Merz said last week he preferred the approach of “strategic ambiguity”.
However, there is speculation in Berlin that he may be on the verge of making a public statement committing to the delivery of longer-range weaponry, possibly Taurus.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is to visit the German capital on Wednesday, it was announced on Monday morning.
Merz justified the change in policy of Germany and its allies, saying only by lifting the range restrictions was Ukraine in a position to be able to defend itself.
“We call it in the jargon ‘long-range fire, which is to say to equip Ukraine with weapons with which it can strike at military goals beyond its borders,” Merz said, speaking at the Europaforum conference of the broadcaster WDR. He called this the “decisive difference between the military leadership of the aggressor Russia and Ukraine: whilst the latter has military goals in its sights, Russia is targeting civilians.”
Western leaders have previously been pronounced in their insistence that to increase the weapons’ range was too provocative and in danger of escalating the conflict with the nuclear power, which has said the use of long-range weapons would be interpreted as the direct involvement in the war of the country that provided them.
In his discussion with WDR, Merz was particularly acerbic in his criticism of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, saying his dismissive approach to engaging in talks that might lead to an end in fighting revealed his intention to prolong the war. “Putin obviously sees offers of talks as a sign of weakness,” he said.
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Hopes that the Vatican might provide a possible setting for negotiations after the Italian government said that the pope was prepared to organise talks, were dashed after the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said it would be “inelegant” for the Catholic church to act as a mediator between two Orthodox Christian countries.
Merz seemed to suggest that diplomatic options had been all but exhausted, even as his parliamentary rivals on the right and the left have accused him and other leaders of not having done enough to negotiate a peace.
“After the last three weeks, no one can seriously accuse us of not having exhausted all available diplomatic means,” Merz said. Ukraine’s supporters had “done everything” they could, he said, short of “raising a white flag”.
“If even an offer to meet at the Vatican does not get [Putin’s] approval, then we must be prepared for this war to last longer than we all wish or can imagine,” he added.
Until now, Germany, the second biggest deliverer of weapons to Ukraine after the US, had not delivered any weapons to Ukraine that had a range beyond 70km (43 miles).
During the election campaign leading up to the 23 February poll, Merz said he was prepared to consider delivering Taurus missiles when in office, but only in conjunction with Germany’s western allies, which had either already delivered similar weapons or had access to them and were intending to do so.
