German chancellor Friedrich Merz has told the Munich Security Council Russia’s war against Ukraine will “only end when Russia is at least economically, potentially militarily, exhausted”. Merz said the Ukraine war “had forced Europe to return from a vacation from world history”. With Russia’s war against Ukraine entering its fifth year, the conflict was high on the agenda at the security conference. Ukraine could hold elections if there was a two to three month ceasefire with Russia, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. But the Ukrainian president said the sequence of getting things agreed was important.

Source: The Guardian February 14, 2026 19:56 UTC