Germany’s Merz and Ukraine’s Zelensky Welcome Truce Efforts

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday welcomed “efforts in favor of a truce,” Berlin said, after former US President Donald Trump claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to a week-long halt on attacks on Ukraine’s power grid.

At the same time, Merz stressed that “the systematic and brutal destruction of Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure by Russian attacks” was “still ongoing,” condemning it “in the strongest terms,” according to his spokesman Stefan Kornelius.