Merz says Germany, France, U.K., and U.S. have lifted range limits for weapons sent to Ukraine

Update: Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the decision by Western countries to lift restrictions on the range of weapons supplied to Ukraine “dangerous,” saying that it “directly contradicts” Russia’s “efforts to move toward a political resolution.”

Germany, the U.K., France, and the U.S. have lifted restrictions on how far the weapons they supply to Ukraine can reach, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday.

“There are no longer any range limits on the weapons being sent to Ukraine — not from the U.K., not from France, not from us. And not from the Americans either,” Merz said, speaking at a forum hosted by the public broadcaster WDR.

The chancellor also said that Germany would “do everything it can” to continue supporting Ukraine. He added that this was one of the reasons he recently traveled to Kyiv with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk as part of the so-called “coalition of the willing.”

According to Merz, lifting the restrictions means Ukraine can now defend itself “by, for example, striking military targets in Russia.” He said that until recently, this had not been happening, except in very rare cases.