Merz in missile pledge

GERMAN Chancellor Friedrich Merz has pledged to help Ukraine develop its own long-range missile systems that would be free of any Western-imposed limitations on their range and target options as the Kyiv government fights to repel Russia's invasion.

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Some of the advanced weapon systems that Kyiv's Western partners have supplied to Ukraine during the more than three-year war were subject to range and target restrictions.

The limits have been a fraught political issue, stemming from fears that if the weapons struck Russia, the Kremlin might retaliate against the country that provided them and suck Nato into Europe's biggest conflict since the Second World War.