Germany and Ukraine to jointly develop new long-range weapons as U.N. experts accuse Russia of war crimes

CBS News

5 days ago

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. He said both countries' defense ministers would sign a memorandum of understanding for the production of long-range weapons systems, declining to provide technical details or name 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 news conference.
Zelenskyy's Berlin visit comes days after Russia launched some of its heaviest missile and drone attacks of the conflict on Ukraine, and as President Trump voices growing frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Ukrainian president accused Russia of stalling peace talks and said Moscow did not want to halt its three-year invasion, adding that "they will constantly look for reasons not to end the war."
Ongoing Russian strikes are war crimes, U.N. experts conclude
Merz said "the massive air strikes, particularly on the city of Kyiv over the weekend, do not speak the language of peace, but rather the language of a war of aggression," calling it, "a slap in the face of all those who are trying to bring about a ceasefire in Ukraine itself, but also in Europe and the USA."
Russia's military has committed "crimes against humanity" and "war crimes" in its drone attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine's Kherson region in particular, a panel of United Nations experts concludes in a report published Wednesday. The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, established by the U.N. Human Rights Council, said Russian armed forces were "systematically" hitting civilians.
"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 in its atypically blunt assessment. "These acts were committed with the primary purpose to spread terror among the civilian population, in violation of international humanitarian law."
The U.N. panel added that "the attacks are continuing at the time of the publication of this report."
Germany calls Ukraine missile deal a "new form of military-industrial cooperation"
Merz, who took power early this month, has vowed to keep strongly backing Ukraine, but without giving details of which weapons Germany is sending, in line with a policy of strategic ambiguity.
The joint 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."
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with military honors at the chancellery in Berlin, Germany, May 28, 2025.
Christian Marquardt/NurPhoto/Getty
Merz hailed the project as "the beginning of a new form of military-industrial cooperation between our countries that has great potential."
Merz had pointed out in a TV interview this week that already "there are no longer any range restrictions on weapons delivered to Ukraine - neither by the British nor by the French nor by us nor by the Americans."
"This means that Ukraine can now defend itself, for example, by attacking military positions in Russia... With very few exceptions, it didn't do that until recently. It can now do that."
Indeed, Ukraine has stepped up attacks on what it claims are military and military-industrial sites deep inside Russia, including a wave of almost 300 drones that Russia's military claimed to have intercepted overnight. Ukrainian military bloggers said the drones had targeted drone, missile and explosive manufacturing facilities, including one north of Moscow, and other sites near the capital itself.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was quoted by the state-run Tass news agency on Wednesday as saying the German-Ukrainian partnership would escalate tension between Russia and Europe, adding: "Germany is directly drawn into this war."
That is a charge Russia has issued for months, however, and Lavrov noted that German tanks were already on the battlefield, "therefore, direct involvement in the war is already obvious."
"Germany is sliding down the same inclined plane along which it has already moved a couple of times in the last century - down to its collapse. I hope that responsible politicians in this country will still draw the right conclusion, stop the madness," Tass quoted Lavrov as saying.
Kremlin suggests Trump being misinformed after he calls Putin "crazy"
Taking over from center-left leader Olaf Scholz, Merz has changed the tone in Berlin and voiced harsh criticism of Putin who, the chancellor charged this week, "obviously sees offers of talks as a sign of weakness."
Mr. Trump, who had long promised that he would quickly broker an end to the war, issued a rare rebuke of Putin on social media on Sunday.
"I've always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!" the president said.
Moscow at first appeared to downplay his remarks, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov suggesting that all parties were speaking under conditions of emotional overload.
Asked about the U.S. president's remarks on Wednesday, however, longtime Putin aide Yuri Ushakov told Russia's state-run VGTRK news outlet that Moscow had concluded Mr. Trump, "is not being informed enough, in particular, Trump is not being sufficiently informed about the massive terrorist attacks that Ukraine is carrying out against peaceful cities in the Russian Federation."
He said the American leader failed to "fully understand that the Russian Federation is striking exclusively at military infrastructure facilities or the military-industrial complex of Ukraine."
The false claim comes after many months of Russian rocket and drone strikes hitting Ukrainian apartment buildings and other civilian infrastructure, killing hundreds of civilians.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump warned that Putin was "playing with fire," amid unconfirmed reports that the U.S. leader is now considering fresh sanctions against Russia, something the United States' NATO allies have long called for.