section_path: Political positions/Foreign policy/Russia and its invasion of Ukraine
section_name: Russia and its invasion of Ukraine
paragraph_text: Russia and its invasion of Ukraine
  
  Following the start of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Merz adopted strong pro-Ukrainian and anti-Russian positions, urging Chancellor Olaf Scholz to supply Ukraine with weapons and personally travelling to Kyiv in May to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
  
  While Merz, as opposition leader, had demanded that the German government of Scholz deliver German Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine, he himself said that he would not necessarily deliver Taurus cruise missiles if he were chancellor. As chancellor, he would provide them if Russia or Vladimir Putin did not comply with Germany's and other European countries' request to stop attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine and on the condition that France and Great Britain, for their part, lift the range limitation on the weapons they delivered to Ukraine. Merz said he would, as chancellor, try to bring about a European decision on the matter of the question of whether to allow Ukraine to strike against targets deep within Russian territory with Western weapons. He said he would also signal Putin his willingness to talk beforehand. In December 2024 he said that Germany is letting Ukraine fight with one arm strapped on its back. Germany should instead give Ukraine the possibility to defend itself effectively with weapons from Germany. In 2025, Merz supported purchasing long-range missiles from Ukraine, adding that there were "no more range limitations for weapons delivered to Ukraine" from Germany; this change was seen by Politico as allowing Taurus missiles to be delivered to Ukraine in the future. He added that "Ukraine has the right to use the weapons it receives, even beyond its own borders, against military targets on Russian territory".