Merz says Germany, Ukraine to jointly produce long-range weapons
German chancellor Friedrich Merz said Wednesday during a visit by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Berlin will help Kyiv develop new long-range weapons that can hit targets in Russian territory, AFP reported.
“Our defence ministers will sign a memorandum of understanding today regarding the procurement of Ukrainian-made long-range weapons systems,” said Merz, without naming the manufacturers involved.
“There will be no range restrictions, allowing Ukraine to fully defend itself, even against military targets outside its own territory,” he told a joint press conference.
The production of long-range weapons “can take place both in Ukraine and here in Germany,” he said. “We will not provide any further details until further notice.”
Merz hailed the project as “the beginning of a new form of military-industrial cooperation between our countries that has great potential”.
Key events
Nearly 175,000 servicemen have signed Russian army contracts since the beginning of the year, the TASS state news agency reported on Wednesday, quoting top security official Dmitry Medvedev.
Medvedev, Russia’s former president, also said that more than 14,000 additional people had joined the army on a volunteer basis, TASS reported.
German prosecutors have charged three people – a Ukrainian, a Russian and an Armenian – with foreign agent activity, on suspicion of spying on a Ukrainian man in Germany with the possible aim of killing him, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
The target of the operation was a man who had taken part in combat operations for the Ukrainian armed forces following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a statement from the federal prosecutor said.
The Armenian man, identified only as Vardges I, was tasked with spying by the Russian intelligence service, the statement added. He is said to have recruited Ukrainian national Robert A. and Russian national Arman S. to assist with the operation, Reuters reported.
The plot involved a planned meeting with the target at a cafe in central Frankfurt in June 2024, but he did not show up after being tipped off by German authorities, the prosecutor said.
“The spying operation presumably served to prepare further intelligence operations in Germany, possibly including the killing of the target person,” the statement said.
The three suspects have been in custody since their arrest on 19 June 2024, the day of the attempted meeting.
European security officials have warned of the increased threat of hybrid attacks by Russia in the wake of the Ukraine war, including espionage and sabotage targeting critical infrastructure.
Ukraine’s military said on Wednesday it struck several Russian weapon production sites during a major overnight drone attack that Moscow said its air defences had repelled.
The latest attack struck Russia’s Kronstadt plant, which produces drones in the town of Dubna outside Moscow, and the nearby Raduga plant that makes cruise missiles, Ukraine’s general staff said.
The Angstrem microchip factory in Moscow region was also struck, it said, adding that the facility produced components widely used by Russia’s military-industrial complex. The factory is in the Elma Technological Park in Zelenograd.
Videos circulating online showed fire and smoke at the technological park. Reuters was able to independently confirm the location of the video, but not the date of the footage.
Russia’s defence ministry said its air defences had downed 296 Ukrainian drones over 13 regions overnight.
The Ukrainian military’s statement did not make clear what weapons its forces used to conduct the long-range attack. But an official from Ukraine’s SBU security agency said in a written statement that the Ukrainian side had used drones. Kyiv lacks an arsenal of long-range missiles.
Ukraine’s general staff also said it conducted a “successful” attack on a factory in Ivanovo region the day before. The factory makes organic chemicals, components of explosives and powders, as well as additives for rocket and aviation fuel, it said. Reuters could not independently confirm the claims by either side.
Germany to provide €5bn military aid package to Ukraine
Germany will provide further military support for Ukraine amounting to about €5bn ($5.65bn), its defence ministry said on Wednesday, as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy met senior officials in Berlin.
According to Reuters, in its statement, the ministry pointed to Russian airstrikes, “with many civilians killed and injured, as well as the massive destruction of civilian infrastructure in particular”.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and German chancellor Friedrich Merz at a joint press conference in Berlin on Wednesday. Photograph: dts News Agency Germany/Shutterstock
The aid will be financed by funds already approved by Germany’s lower house of parliament, it added.
Russia’s drone attacks in Ukraine constitute ‘crimes against humanity’: UN experts
Russia’s military has committed “crimes against humanity” and “war crimes” in its drone attacks on civilians in Ukraine’s Kherson region, UN experts concluded in a report published on Wednesday.
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, established by the UN human rights council, said Russian armed forces were “systematically” hitting civilians, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“Russian armed forces have committed the crimes against humanity of murder and the war crimes of attacking civilians, through a months-long pattern of drone attacks targeting civilians on the right bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson Province,” the inquiry said.
These acts were committed with the primary purpose to spread terror among the civilian population, in violation of international humanitarian law.
They added:
The attacks are continuing at the time of the publication of this report.
The inquiry said that since July last year, Russian military drone operators on the left bank of the Dnipro had “systematically” struck civilians, and had “targeted ambulances”.
The commission documented drone attacks on civilians in Kherson city and 16 other localities, geolocating videos of attacks and reviewing open sources.
Nearly 150 civilians had been killed and hundreds injured, the report said, citing official sources. It said men, women and children were among the victims.
Several Russian Telegram channels with links to the perpetrating military units, some of them with thousands of followers, have disseminated hundreds of videos of the attacks from the original feeds of the drones.
The footage “leaves no doubt that they intended to target civilians”. The report said the attacks amount to the war crimes of intentionally directing attacks against civilians.
The recurrence of such attacks for more than 10 months, against multiple civilian targets in a wide area “demonstrates that they are widespread and systematic and have been planned”.
Such elements “led the commission to conclude that Russian armed forces carried out drone attacks targeting civilians pursuant to an organisational policy and committed murder as a crime against humanity”, the investigation said.
The commission concluded that publishing of videos of civilians being killed and injured “amounts to the war crime of outrages upon personal dignity”.
Merz says Germany will ‘do everything’ to prevent Nord Stream restart
Germany will “do everything” to make sure the damaged Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia will not resume deliveries of natural gas to Europe, chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Wednesday.
“We will continue to increase the pressure on Russia,” Merz said at a press conference with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Berlin. He added:
We will do everything in this context to ensure that Nord Stream 2 cannot be put back into operation.
The Nord Stream 2 gas link connecting Russia and Germany via the Baltic Sea was damaged in September 2022 by huge underwater explosions, said to be an act of sabotage. The explosions destroyed one of the two pipes of Nord Stream 2 and both branches of its controversial sister pipeline, Nord Stream 1.
While Nord Stream 2 never went into operation, Nord Stream 1 for years shipped cheap Russian gas to Europe via Germany.
Critics have argued the existence of the pipeline left Germany and the rest of Europe over reliant on fossil fuel deliveries from Moscow.
German and British media have recently reported that Washington and Moscow had discussed the idea of reviving the Nord Stream 2 project during talks on ending the war in Ukraine, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Senior political figures in Merz’s own party had also expressed tentative support for restarting gas deliveries via the pipeline from Russia before the chancellor definitively ruled out the possibility.
European Commission president chief Ursula von der Leyen said earlier this month the bloc was working on a new set of sanctions that would include measures against Nord Stream 1 and 2, pre-empting a restart.
Explaining the measures, EU spokesperson Paula Pinho said, “the idea is to dissuade any interest, and notably interest from investors, in pursuing any activity on Nord Stream, also in the future”.
Istanbul could be a venue for the next round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.
Merz says Germany, Ukraine to jointly produce long-range weapons
German chancellor Friedrich Merz said Wednesday during a visit by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Berlin will help Kyiv develop new long-range weapons that can hit targets in Russian territory, AFP reported.
“Our defence ministers will sign a memorandum of understanding today regarding the procurement of Ukrainian-made long-range weapons systems,” said Merz, without naming the manufacturers involved.
“There will be no range restrictions, allowing Ukraine to fully defend itself, even against military targets outside its own territory,” he told a joint press conference.
The production of long-range weapons “can take place both in Ukraine and here in Germany,” he said. “We will not provide any further details until further notice.”
Merz hailed the project as “the beginning of a new form of military-industrial cooperation between our countries that has great potential”.
Zelenskyy also said on Wednesday that Ukraine’s defence minister, who was the leader of Ukraine’s Istanbul negotiating team, had a call with the head of Russia’s team to those talks.
He is speaking at a joint news conference in Berlin with German chancellor Merz.
Zelenskyy said that Ukraine not being invited to the upcoming Nato summit would mean a victory for Russian president Vladimir Putin over the alliance.
Zelenskyy had said on Tuesday that Nato chief Mark Rutte wanted Ukraine to attend the summit.
However, it was still not clear whether Kyiv would be invited.
