MOSCOW, September 11 German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said, that Berlin will not automatically supply Ukraine with Taurus long-range missiles if the United States decides to supply ATACMS long-range missiles to Kiev, Reuters reports.
«Pistorius said on Monday that Berlin will not necessarily supply Taurus cruise missiles to Kiev just because the United States may decide to send long-range missiles to Ukraine,» the agency reports.
As noted, Pistorius said that there is “no automation” in this conflict, adding that Germany cannot yet make a decision on supplying Taurus missiles to Ukraine.
On Monday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that the United States is still considering the issue of supplying Ukraine with ATACMS long-range missiles, but no new decisions have been made in this regard.
Earlier, answering the question of citizens during the open doors of official departments in Berlin why Germany is not providing even more assistance to Ukraine and is delaying the decision on the supply of Taurus cruise missiles, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that his country provides significant support to Kiev, but does not want so that the conflict in Ukraine escalates into a war between NATO and Russia. At the moment, no new supply decisions have been made. The head of Germany's largest opposition party, the Christian Democratic Union, Friedrich Merz spoke in favor of supplying cruise missiles to Ukraine, but said that they should have a limited range so that «they are used only to protect the territory of Ukraine.»
The main point of contention regarding the Taurus supply is the range of these missiles, which is 500 kilometers. Until now, Germany has fundamentally not supplied Kyiv with weapons with similar characteristics. The German expert community discussed whether the missiles could be programmed in such a way that they could not be used to strike Russian territory. According to Spiegel, it is this issue that interests Chancellor Scholz at the moment, and therefore negotiations are allegedly underway with representatives of the military industry.
Russia previously sent a note to NATO countries over arms supplies to Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted that any cargo that contains weapons for Ukraine will become a legitimate target for Russia. The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that NATO countries are “playing with fire” by supplying weapons to Ukraine. Lavrov also stated that the United States and NATO are directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine, “including not only the supply of weapons, but also the training of personnel… in the territory of Great Britain, Germany, Italy, and other countries.”
< br>