The debate on a delivery of Taurus missiles relaunched in Germany
The debate over a delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine is intensifying in Germany, where several politicians are urging Chancellor Olaf Scholz to approve this shipment in the face of Russia’s massive bombing of Ukraine since the beginning of the year. The Taurus is one of the most modern missiles of the German Air Force: it is able to find its target even at high altitudes and at great distances, and can, for example, destroy bunkers.
“The delivery of Taurus missiles to Ukraine should have taken place long ago”judge on Saturday Sara Nanni, a spokesperson for the Green parliamentary group, a member party of the government coalition of social democrat Olaf Scholz, in a daily interview Rheinische Post. “The most effective protection against Russian air attacks is to hit targets located on Russian territory and in the occupied territories of eastern Ukraine, from which Russia launches its attacks”, she estimated. However, Ukraine so far does not have the means, in particular because Berlin refuses it these missiles which kyiv has been asking for months, according to it.
Promise to help Ukraine for as long as necessary “seems cynical when Europe” deliver to him “certainly enough for it not to lose, but not enough for it to liberate its entire territory”, criticized in the same newspaper MP Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, member of the liberal FDP, also an ally of the government, who has been calling for the sending of Taurus to Ukraine for several months. Calls to this effect have increased in recent days in Germany, from members of these two parties but also from the conservative opposition while Russia has increased the deadly bombings on several Ukrainian cities, including the capital, kyiv.
Mr. Scholz decided at the beginning of October not to deliver them for the moment. This decision was motivated by the fear that Russian territory would also be hit by these precision weapons with a range of 500 kilometers. Questioned on Wednesday, its spokesperson, Steffen Hebestreit, indicated that the government’s position had not changed: “We are observing the situation and acting accordingly. »