Chancellor Friedrich Merz, from Germany’s mainstream CDU/CSU conservatives, has caused a stir. This time with statements about German weapons in Ukraine. Or to be precise, how exactly Kiev’s troops may use weapons provided by Berlin.

Speaking at a public forum organized by a major German TV station, Merz declared that there are no range limits anymore on how far the Ukrainian military can shoot German weapons into Russia.

Merz’s statements managed to be both sensational (sort of) and a muddle. He implied that they mark a change, but by now his Social Democrat coalition partners and even Merz himself are saying the opposite: That he wasn’t telling us anything new.

It seems Merz has been improvising without thinking things through. In that case, no biggie. That’s just the way he is: Not as dissimilar from the American impulse monster Donald Trump as the dour chancellor from orderly Germany may wish to imagine.

Moreover, the weapons – the MARS II system and the Panzerhaubitze 2000 – that Ukraine currently has from Germany only have modest ranges (84 and 56 kilometers). Removing political limits on them is largely militarily irrelevant.

But what if Merz has been more devious? That is an interpretation popular with those German politicians who want to drag Germany even deeper into the great Western proxy war against Russia via Ukraine. For his fellow conservative – and head of the Defense Committee of the German parliament – Thomas Roewekamp, Merz’s explicit ‘no’ to any range restrictions for German weapons is meant to prepare the ground for delivering the powerful Taurus cruise missile to Kiev.

According to Roewekamp, under Merz’s predecessor, Olaf Scholz, the Taurus’ long range of over 500 kilometers was used as an argument against handing it over to Ukraine. By that logic, dropping range limits means facilitating the Taurus transfer, long the wet dream of German bellicist politicians, as well as some very high-ranking officers. Unsurprisingly, Germany’s militaristic camouflage Greens have already renewed their habitual calls for further escalation by delivering the Taurus to Kiev.

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