G7 to grant licenses for Ukraine to manufacture long-range missiles

The announcement comes after the leaders of the G7 countries pledged renewed support for Ukraine in a joint statement.

"We are all producing too little right now, and this can be compensated for by granting licenses to companies that have this production capacity," German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said at the G7 meeting in Évian-les-Bains, France.

According to Merz, it is American companies, in particular, that will grant licenses to Ukrainian and European arms manufacturers.

The informal G7 (Group of Seven) consists of seven of the world's leading industrialized democracies: France, Italy, Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States.

Until 2014, Russia was also part of the group, which was then called the G8.