German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says that at the NATO summit, the allies will confirm further support for Ukraine for the 2026-2027 period in the amount of EUR 140 billion, expressing confidence that Russia has no chance of winning this war.
He made the statement in Ankara on Wednesday upon arriving at the NATO summit.
"I am sure that from Ankara we will have a new spirit in NATO that will make NATO stronger, that will make NATO more united, and we will, of course, also discuss Ukraine. We will continue to help Ukraine. We have also launched a joint initiative in Europe for the next two years, 2026 and 2027, to provide Ukraine with UAH 70 billion annually. Now it is exclusively up to Russia to stop this war, and we will do everything in our power today to achieve this and send a clear signal to Moscow: Russia has no chance of winning this war," Merz said.
The German Chancellor expressed his conviction that Russians "will not achieve their military goals."
"The sooner we end this war, the better for Europe, the better for Russia, and the better for peace in the world," he emphasized.
Speaking about the summit as a whole, Merz pointed out that the allies will discuss the implementation of agreements already reached at the Hague summit last year to strengthen the defense efforts of European allies and Canada. "We have achieved this. We have significantly improved defense efforts in most member countries of the European Union and in NATO. We will discuss this today, and we will make NATO more European so that it can remain transatlantic," he noted.
In this regard, the Chancellor cited the example of an agreement Germany reached on Tuesday at the Defense Industry Forum between Canada, Norway, and Germany on cooperation in submarine construction. "This will unite us for decades across the entire Atlantic region. From this point of view, defense will also become much more European and much more intensive," Merz said.
