Western allies lift Ukraine’s restrictions on long-range weapons, says Merz

Western allies are not imposing any range restrictions on the use of long-range weapons delivered to Ukraine against Russian military targets, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday.

Merz pointed out that the restrictions have been lifted not only on German weapons.

“There are no longer any restrictions on the range of weapons delivered to Ukraine, neither by the UK, France, nor us. There are no restrictions by the US either,” he said during a discussion forum organised by the public broadcaster, WDR.

He stated that Ukraine can now “defend itself, for example, by attacking military facilities in Russia

“Until recently, it couldn’t do that, and apart from very few exceptions, it hadn’t done so either.”

The German chancellor stressed that while Kyiv is using its weapons to target Russian military infrastructure, Russia continues to attack Ukrainian “cities, kindergartens, hospitals and care homes.”

“Russia attacks civilian targets completely ruthlessly, bombing cities, kindergartens, hospitals and old people’s homes – Ukraine doesn’t do that.”

Merz also revealed that this was one of the reasons for his visit to Kyiv together with the leaders of France, the UK and Poland on 10 May. During that visit to Ukraine’s capital, he also said that all future arms supply talks with Ukraine would be kept confidential

In the past Ukraine received long-range missiles from the US, the UK and France, but was only allowed to use them against Russian military forces in occupied Ukrainian territories.

As for Berlin, before coming into office, Merz signalled he would cancel the ban of his predecessor, Olaf Scholz, on delivering Germany’s Taurus cruise missiles, capable of striking targets at a range of 500 kilometres.

Speaking on Monday, the German chancellor said, “Nobody can now reproach us for not having exhausted all the diplomatic means available to us.”

Lifting the restrictions on the use of long-range weapons will make “the decisive difference in Ukraine’s warfare,” Merz explained, adding that “a country that can only oppose an attacker on its own territory is not defending itself adequately.”