Enlarge image
Designated CDU chief Merz: "Whether you can also help Ukraine to oppose such a threat with defensive weapons"
Photo: Pool / Getty Images
Russia is gathering troops on the border with Ukraine, observers fear that Moscow is preparing an invasion of the neighboring country.
The government in Kiev had asked western states to supply defensive weapons - and accused Germany of preventing this.
The requests from Kiev meet with approval from the designated CDU leader Friedrich Merz (read a portrait here).
These are "in view of the massive deployment of troops by the Russian army on its eastern border without a doubt legitimate," said Merz of the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung".
He demanded a “clear, robust answer” to President Vladimir Putin - “including the question of whether Ukraine can also be helped to counter such a threat with defensive weapons”.
The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj had accused Germany of preventing the delivery of defense weapons.
These would not arrive because of a German blockade, Zelenskyi claimed in an interview with the Italian newspaper »La Repubblica«.
Ukrainian government officials had asked for older frigates, anti-aircraft cannons and anti-ship missile components, among other things.
In NATO, a decision to deliver deadly weapons such as sniper rifles in addition to jammers for drone defense had failed.
Merz said that if this was due to a no from Germany, it was "quite a mortgage".
For fear of an escalation on the ground, the West had long hesitated to sell weapons to Kiev.
Eventually, the Ukrainians managed to acquire some defense systems, including devices for US Javelin anti-tank missiles and Turkish drones.
In the conflict with Ukraine, Putin has demanded immediate security guarantees from the Western states and NATO.
Specifically, it is about the commitment not to expand NATO in the east - Ukraine is considered a possible candidate for membership.
ulz / dpa / AFP
