German finance minister disagrees with Merz over Ukraine weapons policy

BERLIN — Germany’s Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil is clashing with conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz over whether the country has lifted restrictions on how Ukraine can use German weapons against Russia.

“There is no new agreement that goes beyond what the previous government had in place,” Klingbeil, a senior Social Democrat, told reporters in Berlin on Monday when asked whether the range limits on German weapons had been scrapped.

Klingbeil’s statement came just hours after Merz told an audience in Berlin that there were now “no more range limitations” on Western weapons sent to Ukraine, including those from Germany.

Adding to the confusion about the policy, Merz clarified Tuesday that the decision to lift restrictions on Ukraine's use of Western-supplied long-range weapons had been made months ago.

"The issue of limiting the range of deployed weapons played a role a few months and a few years ago. As far as I know, and as I said yesterday, the countries that imposed range limitations have long since abandoned these requirements," Merz said during a press conference with Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo in Turku, Finland.

"In this respect, yesterday in Berlin, I described something that has been happening for months: namely, that Ukraine has the right to use the weapons it receives, even beyond its own borders, against military targets on Russian territory," he added. 

Klingbeil, who leads the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — the junior partner under a Merz-led coalition — dismissed the idea that Merz's Monday comments meant that any official change had been made. 

Germany has so far not supplied any long-range weapons to Ukraine, so the policy shift would apply to U.S., French and British missiles.

The disagreement has created confusion around whether Germany is now willing to supply its Taurus cruise missiles to Kyiv, a topic that has been discussed in German politics for more than a year. 

The Taurus is a powerful, German-made long-range missile capable of hitting targets more than 500 kilometers away with high precision. Ukraine has repeatedly asked for the system to help strike Russian military infrastructure far behind the front lines.

But former Chancellor Olaf Scholz, also from the SPD, had blocked deliveries to Kyiv, fearing that it could escalate the conflict and possibly require German personnel to help Ukraine operate the missiles. Scholz’s decision was widely debated both in Germany and among allies.

Merz, who took office earlier this year as part of a coalition between his center-right Christian Democratic alliance and Klingbeil’s SPD, had criticized Scholz’s position while still in opposition. His comments Monday suggested a possible shift — but without a clear confirmation that Taurus missiles will be sent.

Adding to the uncertainty, Merz also said that Germany would no longer publicly share which weapons it delivers to Ukraine.