Anne-Sylvaine Chassany in Berlin, Henry Foy in Brussels, Christopher Miller in Kyiv and George Parker in London – The Financial Times May 26, 2025
Germany’s chancellor Friedrich Merz has backed Ukrainian military strikes deep into Russian territory, following his earlier commitment to supply Kyiv with German long-range missiles.
Germany, Britain, France and the US have removed all range restrictions for weapons delivered to Ukraine, Merz said on Monday.
Paris, London and Washington have supplied long-range missiles to Kyiv and have already allowed strikes in Russian territory.
But Merz’s stance contrasts with that of his Social Democratic predecessor Olaf Scholz, whom he replaced this month.
The former chancellor repeatedly rejected pleas from Kyiv and its allies to supply the Ukrainian armed forces with German Taurus missiles, which have an intelligent warhead system that can inflict huge damage to structures such as bridges and bunkers.
While Merz has decided to stop disclosing weapon deliveries since taking office — a stance in line with the “strategic ambiguity” approach of French President Emmanuel Macron — he had previously said he favoured deliveries of Taurus missiles to Kyiv if they were co-ordinated with European allies.
“There is no longer any range restriction on weapons delivered to Ukraine, neither by the British, nor by the French, nor by us, nor by the Americans,” Merz said at a conference in Berlin on Monday.
He added: “This means that Ukraine can now defend itself, for example by attacking military positions in Russia. It couldn’t do that until some time ago, it did do that with very few exceptions. [Ukraine] can do that now. In jargon we call this long range fire.”
The centre-right chancellor made his comments after three days of Russian air attacks on Ukraine that involved more than 1,000 drone and missile strikes.
Dmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, said that decisions to give Ukraine longer-range missiles were “potentially dangerous” and could frustrate “attempts to reach a settlement” in Ukraine, according to state newswire Tass.
The 500km-plus range of the Taurus cruise missile is further than the Storm Shadows and Scalps supplied by the British and French and the Army Tactical Missile System (Atacms) provided by the US.
Those British, French and American missiles were first used against military targets inside Russia’s Bryansk and Kursk regions in November, when the respective governments quietly lifted geographical restrictions on their use.
Separately, Kyiv has also developed its own Neptune long-range missiles, as well as drones that target Russian territory.
Merz’s comments come as European leaders are racing to come up with a plan to increase pressure on Moscow, after US President Donald Trump signalled he is inclined to leave them to sort the conflict among themselves.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will meet Merz in Aachen in western Germany on Thursday, where EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen is receiving the Charlemagne prize.
British officials said Starmer would talk to Merz about increasing economic pressure on Russia and ensuring Ukraine has the financial and military support it needs to maintain the fight.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due to travel to Berlin on Wednesday, according to Der Spiegel.
With Washington’s commitment to Ukraine’s security seemingly waning, the French, British and German leaders are increasingly divided over how much military support can be provided to Ukraine after the war.
France and the UK, the two instigators of a so-called “coalition of the willing”, have insisted that an initial plan of deploying troops on the ground in Ukraine is still feasible.
Other nations, including Germany, are more sceptical, since the US remains opposed to the idea and has not promised the security “backstop” previously sought by European powers for such a force.
Starmer and Macron continue to back the troops proposal, people involved in the negotiations said, so as to keep Europe involved in the ceasefire talks and maintain Ukrainian morale, as well as demonstrating their commitment to Trump.
One European official said the troops plan was “dead”, since it was “preposterous without the help of Trump, and he’s not willing to provide it”.
But a French diplomat countered that the reports of the proposal’s death were “not only greatly exaggerated” but also “totally untrue”, adding that the countries were still working on the plans “at normal pace”.
I’ve not read it, but this is a massive red line crossed by the Nazis, and so this puts Putin in a very difficult position.
The recent mass drone attack launched against Putin was defeated, but almost certainly put together by MI6, and this suggests their are sheeple close to Putin, who wants him dead and gone.
It’s not clear how these factions balance out. There are those who will work for the City Crime Cartels, and there are those who will be for more aggressive than Putin.
One would hope for a more aggressive leadership, but this isn’t certain. My general belief is that most of the Russian elites want more aggression towards the Nazis, so Medvedev would represent this group, but their are military figures who could equally take over.
As a general rule, the natural order is that old gets turned over for new, and while I am sure Putin does have medical conditions, we don’t know how they’ll play out, but the Nazis are using pry bars all over the place, inside Russia, and geopolitically.
If these missiles hit deep inside Russia, then we will see changes. What changes is not exactly clear.
Like I keep saying, the Nazis will never stop, and Putin should’ve used tactical nukes on day 7 of the SMO, and more than a million lives would have been spared and it most likely would have delayed the Nazi agenda for some years.
As things stand, WW3 is still very likely, and so are nukes. I believe both Donald Hitler and Putin are in grave danger.
Germany’s long-range missiles will protect Germans while the German women get raped in the streets by invaders. Good work, morons. A lump of rock would help you more
This is the continuation of WWII. This time the allies will join the Nazis and fight Russia, so to all those who said we should have joined with the Nazis to fight the commies it looks like you’ll get your war.
Dear Beloved Germans…wtf!?!
I guess Americans have the same creeps running the government here.
Both ‘sides’ (NATOUkraine/Russia) governed by same Zionist-Commie cabal, pretending to be ‘enemies’ so they can waste whitey.
Funny to watch the Rothschild agents in charge of Euro nations scrambling to serve their Jew Masters. It’s so obvious, as no Euro country is acting in behalf of its interests.
They’re all a bunch of Faggot, Marxist, Satanic Butt-Boys for Jewry. Elections everywhere are rigged. The people aren’t electing these abject Scumbags!
MM
if you didn’t know, Germany isn’t governed by ‘Nazis’ anymore but by Jews-Commies. the ignorance displayed by numerous commentators on this site is amazing
where are these natzis then
put up or shut up you arsole
you just talk bullshiit carl jones
@Carl Jones. “One would hope for more aggressive leadership…” If that were the case, one might not be making one’s post on TTS, and one might not be reading it, nor anyone else, for that matter! We could all be living in caves by now or dying from radiation poisoning if not already having been obliterated. Always remember, strength can be a man’s weakness. So, it might be best to control this ‘weakness’ if one can. Stop, think and understand that life and love go hand in hand. I think Putin’s not-so-apparent strength might be his seemingly apparent weakness! Take care now and pray for better times to come!😉👍👌😘
Merz… Macron… Starmer…
Has there EVER been such cretinous Coalition Of Wankers…. 🙄
Well thats sort of sounds like Europe is at war with Russia .Or rather the Phoenician occupants of Europe countries are threatening Russians, who is led also by Phoenicians. Who is doing all the attacking now? You get all these great actors like Mr Z, the great statesman from Ukraine that he is, and his wealthy oligarchs, fighting a pretend war with Russian oligarchs, along with the help and support of american oligarchs like T2, while the weapons manufacturers are making loads of money, usually spent from borrowed money from other wealthy oligarchs. Overall a depopulation program effectively moving forward. It’s a bit stupid of some fool German to blabber on about the need to shoot missles deep into Russia.. Europe wont be able to keep up, what with Frances truck still in the shop, and those lactating generals still cant figure out how to park the Jeep.
it is jewish chessgame here in europa as
it was 1939 .