Major German – NATO escalation

by Dave DeCamp 
May 27, 2025 

Merz Clarifies Decision on Ukraine’s Missiles Was Made ‘Months Ago’

The German chancellor suggested a day earlier that a decision was made recently, comments that drew a rebuke from Russia

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz clarified on Tuesday that the decision to allow Ukraine to strike Russian territory with NATO missiles was made months ago.

“The issue of limiting the range of deployed weapons played a role a few months and a few years ago. As far as I know, and as I said yesterday, the countries that imposed range limitations have long since abandoned these requirements,” Merz said.

Merz made the comments a day after suggesting that a recent decision was made regarding Ukraine’s use of Western-provided weapons. “In this respect, yesterday in Berlin, I described something that has been happening for months: namely, that Ukraine has the right to use the weapons it receives, even beyond its own borders, against military targets on Russian territory,” he said.

The German leader’s comments on Monday drew a rebuke from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who said Merz’s remarks reflected the “level of competence” among European leaders and suggested that a new decision may have been made months ago that wasn’t publicized.

“This suggests that the decision to allow Ukraine to pursue strikes on Russian territory – at least within some limits – was made quite some time ago and simply kept under wraps,” Lavrov said.

Moscow’s view is that strikes on its territory using Western-provided missiles put NATO in a direct war with Russia since Ukraine needs intelligence from the US to fire the weapons.

Toward the end of 2024, the Biden administration gave Ukraine the green light to fire US-provided Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and British-provided Storm Shadow missiles into Russian territory, a step that marked a significant escalation of the proxy war at the time. In response, Russian President Vladimir Putin formally changed Russia’s nuclear doctrine, lowering the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons.

Merz’s comments on Monday suggested that Germany may provide Ukraine with its Taurus missile, which has a range of up to 310 miles. His predecessor, Olaf Scholz, had resisted sending the missiles, but Merz has made clear he’s open to the idea.

Germany providing the Taurus missiles would mark another significant escalation in the proxy war since the weapon has a further range than both the ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles.

Read also: The West pressures Moldova’s president to launch a blitzkrieg against Transnistria | Defend Democracy Press

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