The German Merz promises to help Ukraine produce long -range missiles

The new chancellor of Germany Friedrich Mertz told Ukraine Volodimir Zelenski that Berlin would help Kiev produce long -range missiles to protect himself from the Russian attack.

“We want to talk about the production and we will not publicly discuss details,” he said when he was asked by reporters in Berlin if Germany would deliver Kiev with his Taurus rockets.

Mertz took office earlier this month, promising to raise German support for Ukraine and said this week that there were no longer “restrictions on the scope of weapons provided by the Western allies of Kiev.

The Taurus has a range of 500 km (310 miles) and can reach deeper into Russian territory than other missiles of distant lining.

Although Mertz did not refer to Taurus by name during his press conference with the Ukrainian leader, he said that the “Memorandum of Understanding” of long-range missiles would be signed by the German and Ukrainian defense ministers later on Wednesday.

The Kremlin warned that any decision to end the limits to the range of missiles that Ukraine could use would be a very dangerous change in policy that would harm efforts to achieve a political deal.

Since then, Mertz stressed that the decision on the limits of the scope was taken by Western allies months ago.

The new chancellor seeks to cut a far more resistance figure to support Ukraine than his predecessor Olaf Scholz.

For now, he has succeeded.

There may be many questions about the detail of the Merz Missile Cooperation Plan, but his desire to make big messages that could oppose the Kremlin is in complete contrast with the cautious tone of the last government.

During his press conference with Zelenski, Mertz promised Ukraine to continue to support as long as he needed, warning Moscow that his refusal to participate in more peace talks would have “real consequences”.

Zelenski called for conversations aimed at reaching a war agreement to include three leaders – Trump -Putin -M – although he added that he was ready for every format.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not reject the idea out of the hand, but said such a meeting could only be held after the “specific agreements” between the “two delegations” were reached.

Although Ukraine and Russia have held their first direct negotiations for more than three years in Istanbul this month, the meeting included low -level employees and they managed to agree only on the exchange of prisoners, which took place last weekend.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov suggested on Wednesday that a date for further conversations would be announced in the “very near future”, but it became clear that Moscow seeks to guarantee “the neutral, unbreakable and non-acute status of Ukraine.”

US President Donald Trump said this week that his patience is thinning from Russia’s failure to move on with additional conversations.

He accused Vladimir Putin of Fire Game, after a deadly Russian missile strike, killing 13 Ukrainians, including children. However, Russian officials have suggested that Trump is not sufficiently informed about the context of the conflict.

The President of Ukraine has called on Washington to impose sanctions on Russia’s banking and energy sectors. He said he had discussed the Trump issue, adding that the US president had “confirmed that if Russia did not stop, sanctions would be imposed.”

Despite continuing diplomatic maneuvers, the military in Ukraine reports one of its largest drone barges on Russian purposes so far at night until Wednesday, while Zelenski said Russia had released more than 900 drones for a three-day period, ending early on Monday morning.

On the spot, Ukraine’s defenses fell under an increased Russian attack on the northeast.

Zelenski said that Moscow “accumulates” over 50,000 troops along the front of sums, where Russian forces seized several villages through the Ukrainian border in an attempt to create what Putin calls “buffer zones of security.”

Oleh Governor Oleh Hristo said the Russian forces had seized four villages and that the battles continue near other settlements in the area.

The war, which is already in its fourth year, took tens of thousands of lives and left much of the East and south of Ukraine in ruins. Moscow controls approximately one fifth of the country’s territory, including Crimea, which it annexes in 2014.

Zelenski accused Moscow of delaying the peace process and stated that they were yet to provide a promised memorandum of peaceful conditions after negotiations in Istanbul. Peskov insisted that the document was in the “final stages”.