The German government, led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, intends to maintain its initial decision to withhold the delivery of Taurus air-to-ground missiles to Ukraine, despite the demands made by Kyiv in this regard.
Instead, Germany plans to continue focusing on supporting the Ukrainian armed forces in their fight against Russian invaders with air defense and artillery systems.
German government sources confirmed to the German Press Agency (dpa) on Thursday the accuracy of media reports on this matter.
Berlin has not issued an official decision on this issue yet, leaving the option of supply open for consideration at a later time.
It is worth noting that Britain and France have already supplied missiles, such as Storm Shadow and SCALP, to Ukraine, which are practically similar to the German Taurus missiles.
Ukraine officially asked the German government at the end of May whether it was possible to supply them with these missiles, which have a range of 500 kilometers, as the Ukrainian army needs them to target Russian positions located far behind the front lines, which cannot be reached with conventional artillery.
German Chancellor Scholz initially had a skeptical stance regarding supplying these missiles to Ukraine, fearing the possibility of Ukraine using them to attack Russian territory. However, at times, it appeared that the German government might take this step, which garnered significant support from the Green Party and the Free Democratic Party, the coalition partners in Scholz’s ruling coalition.
So far, the United States has been unable to deliver mobile air defense missiles, such as Javelins, to Ukraine, which may have reinforced Scholz’s cautious stance.
It’s worth mentioning that Scholz has consistently followed the lead of the United States in all new qualitative steps related to military support provided to Ukraine.
Scholz last met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in the middle of last month. The statement issued after the meeting did not mention the supply of Taurus missiles to Ukraine, focusing instead on German military assistance, particularly in artillery and air defense systems.
