Merz Accused Russian Federation Of Grave War Crimes In Ukraine
- 10.06.2025, 20:38
The German chancellor called for tougher sanctions against Moscow.
In the wake of Russia's recent attacks on Kiev and other Ukrainian cities, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, has accused Moscow of grave war crimes. In the past days, Russia "purposefully and unceremoniously" attacked Ukrainian civilians with drones and cruise missiles, Merz said at a joint press conference with acting Dutch Prime Minister Friedrich Merz in Berlin on Tuesday, June 10, DW.
These massive Russian attacks are "terror against civilians" and "anything but a proportional response" to Ukraine's "very precise" strikes on Russian military airfields. "Russia really wants to create a bloodbath. It succeeded in doing so only on a very limited scale, only because of the excellent Ukrainian air defense," Merz said.
According to Ukrainian officials, on the night of June 9, Kiev was subjected to the largest nighttime UAV attack since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022. The AFU Air Force reported that Russia used 479 attack drones and imitation drones of various types, four Kh-47 M2 Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles, 10 Kh-101 cruise missiles, three Kh-22 cruise missiles, two Kh-31P anti-radar missiles and one Kh-35 cruise missile against Ukraine that night.
In addition, Friedrich Merz spoke in favor of strengthening sanctions against Moscow by the European Union and the United States and promised that the German government will work in this direction together with its partners. At the same time, he added that he would like to dispel the impression that "so far sanctions against Russia have allegedly yielded nothing."
The German Chancellor said that the sanctions already adopted have weakened the Russian economy. The answer to "the question of how long Russia will last in this war also depends on how much these sanctions work," he pointed out. Commenting on the draft 18th EU sanctions package presented by the head of the European Commission (EC) Ursula von der Leyen, Friedrich Merz said that new restrictions are expected in the energy and banking sectors.
For his part, Dick Schof promised that the Netherlands would "always support" tougher sanctions against Russia.