Friedrich Merz has decided to take a helm. The new German chancellor announced Monday that Berlin suppresses “every limitation of scope” to the weapons he delivers to Ukraine, allowing kyiv to directly attack military objectives in Russian territory. “Today’s Ukraine can also defend itself beyond its border,” said the leader of the CDU in an interview with the WDR public broadcaster. The decision marks a deep change regarding the line that maintained its predecessor, Olaf Scholz, and has caused a diplomatic crossing with Moscow.
According to the German newspaper Merz was blunt: “We are going to do everything in our hands to support Ukraine, also from the military point of view.” The phrase not only confirms the turn in the German strategy, but responds to the accumulated frustration after months of Russian offensives and the repeated failure of the diplomatic pathways. The Chancellor also acknowledged that he does not expect a short -term decala: “We are still far from the point where a side, or both, reach military or economic exhaustion.”
The Russian answer was swift. Foreign Minister Serguéi Lavrov, lashed out at Merz with his usual caustic tone, ensuring that his statements reveal “the caliber of people who are coming to power in Europe.” He also hinted that the decision would have been made for a long time and kept secret. In parallel, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov, described the measure as “dangerous” and “contrary to any attempt at political solution.”
The German turn shakes Europe
Although the position of the new Foreign Minister was immediately supported by its Foreign Minister, Johann Wadephul, who denied that Russia has shown real will to negotiate, the announcement has unleashed an intense debate in the German Parliament. “This behavior could not run out of consequences,” Wadephul insisted from Lisbon, directly pointing to Vladimir Putin as responsible for closing any door to dialogue.
At the national level, the reactions are distributed in two blocks. From the Greens, the vice president of the parliamentary group, Agnieszka Brugger, celebrated the measure as “coherent and long expected”, and demanded to take another step with the delivery of Taurus missiles, capable of reaching Moscow with its 500 kilometers of reach. On the other hand, from the SPD, the vice president of the Government, Lars Klingbeil, tried to subtract drama and denied that there has been a real change of policy: “There is no new agreement that exceeds what has already been done by the previous executive,” he settled before the press. The left, on the other hand, warned of a “dangerous escalation.”
Despite the stir, the operational impact of this decision will be limited in the short term. Germany has not yet delivered armament with sufficient capacity to attack deeply within Russia. It only has the Mars II Runification and the Panzerhaubitze 2000 self -propelled artillery, with reach of between 35 and 85 kilometers. The Taurus missile, the only one capable of transforming this new doctrine into facts, still does not be part of the Ukrainian Arsenal, while other allies such as the United States, France or the United Kingdom have already provided long -range missiles that, according to international media, have been used to hit infrastructure in Russian territory.
