<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/26/germany-and-ukraines-other-allies-scrap-range-limits-on-arms-sent-to-kyiv>
"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.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
