Germany’s Merz says there are no more range restrictions on the weapons supplied to Ukraine

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s new chancellor said Monday that his country and other major allies are no longer imposing any range restrictions on weapons supplied to Ukraine as it fights the Russian invasion.

Friedrich Merz has plunged into diplomatic efforts to try to secure a ceasefire and keep Western support for Ukraine intact since becoming Germany’s leader nearly three weeks ago.

On Monday, he said that “there are no longer any range restrictions for weapons that have been delivered to Ukraine — neither by the British, nor by the French, nor by us, and not by the Americans either.”

“That means Ukraine can also defend itself by, for example, attacking military positions in Russia,” Merz said at a forum organized by WDR public television. “Until a while ago, it couldn’t. … It can now.”

“We call this ‘long-range fire’ in jargon, also supplying Ukraine with weapons that attack military targets in the hinterland,” he added.

He didn’t elaborate, and it wasn’t clear whether he was referring to the easing of restrictions on longer-range weapons late last year.

Commenting on Merz’s statement, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that a decision to lift range restrictions would be “quite dangerous” and “run contrary to our efforts to reach a political settlement.”

Germany has been the second-biggest supplier of military aid to Ukraine after the United States.

Merz’s government has been tightlipped on whether it will supply Taurus long-range cruise missiles, something his predecessor, Olaf Scholz, refused to do and Merz advocated for as opposition leader. The government has said it will no longer provide full details of the weapons it is supplying to Ukraine, unlike Scholz’s administration, citing the need for “strategic ambiguity.”

Taurus missiles have a range of up to 500 kilometers (310 miles).