By Dmitry Antonov
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia said on Tuesday that remarks by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz about long-range Ukrainian strikes into Russia with European weapons suggested that a decision allowing such attacks had been made long ago but kept secret.
Merz said there were no longer any range restrictions on the weapons supplied to Ukraine by Britain, France, Germany and the United States, and that Ukraine could now do “long range fire”.
But Merz’s remarks were unclear as he also said that Ukraine had been unable to do that until some time ago.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the remarks indicated the calibre of people who had risen to power in leading European countries.
“He (Merz) said yesterday with such pretentiousness that from now on and forever there are no restrictions on the range of strikes,” Lavrov told reporters at a meeting in Moscow with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.
Lavrov said other German officials appeared to have contradicted the chancellor and that such contradictory signals suggested to Moscow that European powers had long ago decided to allow Ukraine to make long-range strikes deep into Russia with European missiles but that the decision “was kept secret”.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that recent statements by European leaders on the issue had prompted confusion but that if long-range missile fires had been permitted, then it would amount to an “escalation”.
President Vladimir Putin said last year that Russia could deploy conventional missiles within striking distance of the United States and its European allies if they allowed Ukraine to strike deeper into Russia with long-range Western weapons.
After Ukraine struck Russia with U.S. ATACMS, British Storm Shadows and U.S. HIMARS in November, Russia struck Ukraine using a newly-developed hypersonic ballistic missile.
Ukraine lobbied its Western allies hard to allow it to strike deeper into Russia and to supply it with more weapons to do so, though the United States and some European powers were sceptical that long-range strikes would change the course of the war and were wary of escalating it into a full-blown confrontation between the West and Russia.
Asked about Donald Trump’s recent remarks on Russia, Lavrov said the U.S. president was showing emotion as he was seeing his efforts for peace in Ukraine sabotaged by European politicians.
(Reporting by Dmitry AntonovEditing by Guy Faulconbridge and Gareth Jones)
