The German Chancellor has so far insisted that the time for diplomacy has not come, that it were useless anyway, because Putin would not want to talk, that the only way to force Russia to the negotiation tables is by military means. Merz has been a supporter of building up an efficient Ukrainian weapons production with European money, for instance, long-range drones and missiles with part of the EU’s 90-billion-euro loan. In addition, a substantial part of bilateral German funds, totalling 11 billion euros in 2026, is assigned to the delivery of longer-range drones and production of the FP-5 cruise missile, which western experts claim to be as powerful as the U.S. Tomahawk.
Earlier this week, Merz spoke of “territorial concessions” that Ukraine would have to make in future peace talks. He left it open which concessions, exactly, Ukraine would have to make. When the time for such talks would arrive, Merz did not say, nor did he back the ongoing dialogue between Trump, Putin, and Zelensky. Nor did he use the occasion to speak for or against diplomacy, by commenting on the proposal by Rolf Muetzenich on Monday to begin talks with Russia about a pull-out of its Iskander missiles from Kaliningrad—now that the planned stationing of U.S. missiles in Germany has been called off.
