German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said today that the war in Ukraine is expected to last longer due to Russia's unwillingness to negotiate, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
“Wars usually end due to economic or military exhaustion of one or both sides, and in this war we are clearly still far from that situation“, Merz said during a joint press conference with Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo in Turku.
“So maybe we should prepare for the war to last longer“, the German chancellor added.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz supports providing Ukraine with long-range missiles to strike Russia, the newspaper wrote in a headline. “Financial Times“.
The German Chancellor has backed Ukrainian military strikes deep into Russian territory after earlier pledging to supply Kiev with German long-range missiles. Germany, Britain, France and the United States are removing all restrictions on the range of weapons supplied to Ukraine, Merz said yesterday.
Paris, London and Washington have supplied long-range missiles to Kiev and have already authorized strikes on Russian territory, the British publication says. Merz's position, however, contrasts with that of his predecessor, the Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, the Financial Times notes.
The former chancellor has repeatedly rejected requests from Kiev and its allies to supply the Ukrainian armed forces with German Taurus missiles, which have a precision guidance system and can inflict massive damage on structures such as bridges and bunkers.
“There is no longer a limit on the range of weapons supplied to Ukraine, neither by the British, nor by the French, nor by us, nor by the Americans,” Merz said yesterday in Berlin.