PHOTO COLLECTION: Russia Ukraine War

This is a photo collection curated by AP photo editors.

Volunteers light flares to mark the Volunteer Day in central Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)

Volunteers march to mark the Volunteer Day in central Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out the fire at a civilian hospital following a Russian drone attack in Zolochiv, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Friday, March 14, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this photo taken from video distributed by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Friday, March 14, 2025, Russian soldiers ride atop of self-propelled gun at an area in the Kursk region of Russia after it was taken over by Russian troops. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

In this photo distributed by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Friday, March 14, 2025, Abandoned Ukrainian ammunition lie at an area in the Kursk region of Russia after it was taken over by Russian troops. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

A makeshift memorial for the fallen Ukrainian and foreign fighters, during a commemorative event for US volunteer soldiers who were in Ukraine's armed forces and killed fighting against Russian troops, on the Independence Square in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

The Standard of the President of the Russian Federation flutters in the wind over the Senate building with the Spasskaya Tower, left, and St. Basils's Cathedral on the right, at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Dmitry Serebryakov)

In this photo taken from video distributed by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Friday, March 14, 2025, a Russian soldier rises a red flag atop of a house at an area in the Kursk region of Russia after it was taken over by Russian troops. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

"Peace to the world", a painting created by Russian artist Alexei Sergienko showing a combination of faces of Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump, is on display at the Sergienko's gallery in St. Petersburg, Russia, Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

BERLIN (AP) — Germany's would-be next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, is asking lawmakers Tuesday to allow the country to put “whatever it takes” into defense as doubts mount about the strength of the trans-Atlantic alliance, and to authorize an enormous fund for investment in its creaking infrastructure, financed by hefty borrowing.

The outgoing parliament is set to meet for a final time to vote on the plans as Merz's center-right Union bloc works to put together a governing coalition with the center-left Social Democrats of outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz after winning last month's election.

The plans will need a two-thirds majority in parliament's lower house, the Bundestag, because they involve changes to Germany's strict self-imposed borrowing rules — the so-called “debt brake,” which allows new borrowing worth only 0.35% of annual gross domestic product and is anchored in the constitution. That forced the prospective coalition partners into negotiations with the environmentalist Greens, whose votes will be needed to get enough support.

The package would exempt from the debt rules spending on defense and security, including intelligence agencies and assistance to Ukraine, of more than 1% of GDP. It also foresees setting up a 500 billion-euro ($544 billion) fund, financed by borrowing, to pour funding into Germany's infrastructure over the next 12 years and help restore the economy — Europe's biggest — to growth.

At the Greens' insistence, 100 billion euros from the investment fund will go into climate-related spending.

The plans amount to an about-turn for Merz, whose party had spoken out against running up new debt before the election without entirely closing the door to future changes to the “debt brake.” The Social Democrats and Greens had long argued for a reform of the borrowing rules.

Recent weeks have brought new urgency to efforts to further strengthen Germany's long-neglected military. The outgoing government created a special 100 billion-euro fund to modernize it, which also helped Berlin meet the current NATO target of spending 2% of GDP on defense. But that pot will be used up in 2027, and doubts have grown recently about the Trump administration's commitment to European allies.

Merz said earlier this month that Germany and Europe must quickly strengthen their defense capability and that “‘whatever it takes’ must also go for our defense now."

He told ARD television Sunday that “the situation has once again escalated dramatically in recent weeks” and that Germany's budget had turned out to be in worse shape than previously known.

Of Tuesday's vote, he said: “It will be close, but it will work.”

“Of course there is still persuasion to be done in all three parliamentary groups, but we should not less this opportunity go unused,” he said.

The package is being brought to the old parliament — rather than the newly elected one, which will hold its first session on March 25 — because parties that are unlikely to agree have just over one-third of the seats in the new chamber. The far-right Alternative for Germany portrays itself as a staunch defender of the “debt brake,” while the Left Party opposes it but is skeptical about military spending.

In the outgoing Bundestag, the Union, Social Democrats and Greens have a combined 520 of the 733 lawmakers — 31 more than are required for a two-thirds majority.

If the package is approved Tuesday, it faces another hurdle Friday in parliament's upper house, which represents Germany's 16 state governments. They are also set to be given more freedom to borrow money.

A two-thirds majority will also be needed in the upper house. That initially was uncertain because the parties behind the plans control only 41 of the 69 upper-house votes. But on Monday, the conservative-led governing coalition in Bavaria, which has six votes, also agreed to support the package.

Friedrich Merz, leader of the Christian Democratic Union, right, and Social Democratic Party leader Lars Klingbeil talk during a meeting of the German federal parliament, Bundestag, at the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, March 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

German opposition leader and Christian Democratic Union party chairman Friedrich Merz, center, delivers his speech during a meeting of the German federal parliament, Bundestag, at the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, March 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

German opposition leader and Christian Democratic Union party chairman Friedrich Merz attend a meeting of the German federal parliament, Bundestag, at the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, March 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)