As Russia’s bombing campaign has escalated recently, despite U.S.-led efforts to halt the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin on Wednesday to discuss increased military assistance.
Germany has been Ukraine’s second-largest military aid provider, after the United States.
Since taking over as Germany’s leader three weeks ago, Merz has thrown himself into diplomatic efforts to try to obtain a truce and maintain Western backing for Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is allegedly stalling U.S.-led peace negotiations, according to European leaders.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul was set to meet in Washington with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday.
Zelenskyy said Tuesday that Ukraine is ready to hold peace talks at the highest level, including a trilateral meeting with himself, Putin and U.S. President Trump.
Merz said on Monday that Germany and other major allies are no longer imposing any range restrictions on weapons supplied to Ukraine as it fights to repel Russia’s full-scale invasion, which began in February 2022.
Merz’s government hasn’t said whether it will supply its Taurus long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine, something his predecessor, Olaf Scholz, refused to do and which Merz advocated for as opposition leader.
The government has said it would no longer provide full details of the weapons it’s supplying to Ukraine, unlike Scholz’s administration, citing the need for “strategic ambiguity.”
Taurus missiles have a range of up to 500 kilometers (310 miles). The German- and Swedish-made missiles, which are equipped with stealth technology, would be able to reach targets deep in Russia from Ukrainian soil, including the Black Sea. Ukraine wants the missiles to complement the long-range Storm Shadow missiles sent by Britain and France’s nearly identical Scalp cruise missiles.
Zelenskyy said that he plans to discuss the supply and use of long-range weapons in his talks with Merz.
Ukraine needs $30 billion in additional financing to help it compete with Russia in the production of drones and missiles, Zelenskyy said. Russia is aiming to produce 300-350 drones per day, he said.
Meanwhile, fighting has continued along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, and both sides have conducted deep strikes. Russia launched its biggest drone attack of the war against Ukraine on Sunday.
According to Russia’s Defense Ministry, Russian air defenses shot down 296 Ukrainian drones over 13 Russian territories late Tuesday and early Wednesday, in what seemed to be one of the largest Ukrainian drone assaults of the war.
Zelenskyy claims that Ukraine is strengthening its domestic manufacture of drones and missiles. He stated late Tuesday that Ukraine wants European countries to assist it in the production of attack drones, air defense interceptors, cruise missiles, and ballistic systems.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin stated that air defenses shot down 33 Ukrainian drones on their way to the capital.
Andrei Vorobyov, the governor of the Moscow region, said that 42 drones were downed. He said that drone fragments damaged three residential buildings in the village of Troitskoye, but no one was hurt.
Hundreds of planes were delayed or diverted at Moscow’s airports.
Russian soldiers launched an attack on Ukraine overnight, employing five Iskander ballistic missiles, one guided air-launched missile, and 88 drones, Ukraine’s Air Force claimed Wednesday. Air defense units shot down 34 drones, while 37 were jammed.
Ukraine’s railway infrastructure and equipment in Kharkiv, Donetsk, and Sumy regions were also targeted overnight and Wednesday morning, according to Ukrzaliznytsia, the country’s state railway company. There were no casualties reported.
In the Kharkiv region, railway traffic was temporarily suspended so that police and emergency workers could clear debris from a downed drone that landed on the tracks.
In Sloviansk in the Donetsk region, the attack shattered windows at the station building, and drone debris slightly damaged a train car.
