MOSCOW: The Kremlin on Monday warned that any move by Western nations to lift range restrictions on weapons supplied to Ukraine would be “dangerous” and undermine prospects for a political settlement.
The statement came after newly-elected German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced that Germany and other key allies were no longer placing limits on how far Ukrainian forces could strike using Western-supplied arms.
“If these decisions have indeed been made, they are completely at odds with our aspirations for a political (peace) settlement… These are quite dangerous decisions, if they have been made,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian journalist Alexander Yunashev.
Merz said in an interview published Monday that Germany along with Ukraine’s other key Western backers had lifted range restrictions on weapons they send to Kyiv to fight against Russia.
“There are no longer any range restrictions on weapons delivered to Ukraine — neither by the British nor by the French nor by us nor by the Americans,” he said.
In a later post on X, Merz said: “We will do everything in our power to continue supporting Ukraine. This also means no longer having any range restrictions on the weapons we supply. Ukraine can now also defend itself by attacking military positions in Russia.”
The previous German government of centre-left chancellor Olaf Scholz strongly backed Kyiv, but shied away from sending it long-range Taurus missiles, worried that this might escalate tensions with the nuclear power.
Moscow had earlier warned that it would treat potential Ukrainian strikes on transport infrastructure using Taurus missiles as “direct participation” in the conflict by Berlin.
Russia has long criticised Western countries for supplying long-range weapons to Ukraine, arguing Kyiv uses them to strike targets deep inside Russian territory.
A year ago, the UK said that Ukraine had the right to decide how to use British-supplied weapons in its defence. In November, Ukraine fired UK-supplied longer-range Shadow missiles at targets in Russia.
