Germany’s Merz says Russian drone incursions part of long trend of sabotage

BERLIN: Russia’s violation of Polish and Romanian airspace is part of a long-running trend of boundary-testing and sabotage by President Vladimir Putin, said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Wednesday.

“Russia wants to insidiously destabilize our free societies,” Merz told the Bundestag lower house of parliament, saying that a peace deal in the Ukraine war cannot come at the expense of Kyiv’s political sovereignty and territorial integrity.

“A dictated peace, a peace without freedom, would encourage Putin to seek his next target,” added Merz.