Euronews reported that on May 27, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that the decision to lift restrictions on Ukraine's use of Western weapons had actually been made many months ago.
Speaking in Turku during his visit to Finland, Prime Minister Merz noted that the statement he made on May 26 about suggesting Ukraine attacking Russia with long-range weapons provided by Europe, including Germany, is simply a description of what has happened over the past several months.
This shows that the German Chancellor is trying to reduce his political responsibility by affirming that the above decision was not made by Mr. Merz but had been made before, when he had not yet taken office.
Mr. Friedrich Merz - leader of the Christian Democratic/Social Union (CDU/CSU) - took office as German Chancellor on May 6.
However, on May 28, the German leader said he had informed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Berlin would support Ukraine in developing its own missile capabilities.
Speaking to reporters in Berlin, Mr. Merz affirmed that these weapons will not be limited in range and Ukraine can use them to attack targets outside its territory.
The prime minister also declined to answer questions about the possibility of Kiev being provided with a Taurus cruise missile by Berlin - a missile with a range of up to 500 km, enough to reach Moscow if launched from Ukraine. This move seems to extinguish all speculation related to the above issue.
Meanwhile, a source recently collected by Bild shows that Germany is unlikely to send Taurus missiles because Berlin authorities consider this a bancado zone, fearing it could lead to serious escalation.
Moscow, for its part, condemned Mr Merz's initiative, as Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Germany was competing with France to incite conflict.
Responding to Mr. Merz's previous statement about removing the range limitations, Mr. Peskov warned that this could lead to a "serious escalation" in the Ukrainian conflict and "seriously undermining efforts for a peaceful solution".
Mr. Peskov also said that Kiev does not have the ability to locate targets to carry out long-range attacks independently, and stressed that supporting these attacks would make the West a "direct combat side".
Those statements are clear evidence that the European Union (EU) is not peaceful and has no intention of resolving the Ukrainian conflict through diplomacy, Peskov said, according to Russian media reports.
