Merz suggests Ukraine cede territory

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on April 27 that Ukraine may have to accept parts of its territory remaining outside Kyiv’s control in a future peace deal with Russia. (usnews.com) Speaking to students in Marsberg, Merz said President Volodymyr Zelensky would need a referendum majority for any such settlement. He said an eventual path into the European Union could help secure that support. (kyivindependent.com) (yahoo.com) Merz also pushed back on Kyiv’s earlier target of joining the European Union by January 1, 2027, calling that timeline unrealistic. He framed membership as a long process tied to the end of active war. (euronews.com) Ukraine has held European Union candidate status since June 2022, and the European Commission says accession negotiations have formally started. The Commission said last week that Ukraine completed its screening process in September 2025. (ec.europa.eu) That makes Merz’s comments more than a passing remark about borders. He tied the shape of any ceasefire and peace treaty directly to the political prize Kyiv says it wants after the war. (usnews.com) (ec.europa.eu) The timing also fits a wider European shift toward carrying more of the security burden itself. A European Parliament briefing on the Commission’s Readiness 2030 plan says Brussels wants to leverage more than €800 billion in defence spending, including a €150 billion loan instrument for joint procurement. (europarl.europa.eu) New Stockholm International Peace Research Institute data published April 28 said global military spending reached $2.887 trillion in 2025. Europe’s rearmament push was a central driver, while Ukraine’s own military spending rose 20% to $84.1 billion. (sipri.org) SIPRI said Russia spent about $190 billion on its military in 2025, up 5.9% from a year earlier. Ukraine remained heavily dependent on outside support even as European governments increased their own defence budgets. (sipri.org) A separate diplomatic track underscored how wide the war’s geopolitical frame has become. In St. Petersburg on April 27, Vladimir Putin told Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi that Russia backed Iran through what he called a “difficult period” and wanted peace restored soon. (al-monitor.com) Merz’s remarks do not change Ukraine’s formal position, and Kyiv has repeatedly rejected recognizing Russian control over occupied land. But they show Germany’s new chancellor publicly sketching the kind of trade-offs some European leaders now discuss in plain terms. (kyivindependent.com) (usnews.com)