MOSCOW, May 30. /TASS/. Russian Buk-M2/Buk-M3 or S-300V4 and S-400 air defense systems are capable of tracking and destroying Western-made Taurus cruise missiles, Igor Korotchenko, military expert and editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine, told TASS on Friday.
The Taurus is a modern air-launched precision missile that flies along an extremely low flight path and can follow terrain features, the expert explained.
"This is quite a difficult target. However, Russian surface-to-air missile systems, such as Buk-M2, Buk-M3 and also S-300V4 and S-400 possess the capabilities to detect and successfully destroy this type of targets," Korotchenko stressed.
Russian Buk-M3 air defense systems have demonstrated their capability to destroy various air-launched ballistic targets, such as cruise missiles, in the zone of the special military operation, he pointed out. "The capabilities to detect and engage these targets are available," he stressed.
Air defense capabilities operate within their area of responsibility while "the enemy’s potential should be taken very seriously, especially in a large-scale strike," the military expert said.
"Proceeding from this, we state that the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukrainian armed forces poses the risks of the conflict’s major escalation compared to the current situation," he stressed.
Earlier, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said again that he did not rule out the delivery of Taurus long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine. Merz said on May 26 that Germany would lift range restrictions on the weapons that Berlin and its allies were supplying to Kiev. He said that the United States, Great Britain and France had made a similar decision.
At a joint press conference with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky in Berlin on May 28, the German chancellor confirmed that there were no longer any range limits on weapons supplied to Kiev for delivering strikes on Russian territory.