BERLIN, September 6. /TASS/. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba gave assurances on Wednesday that Kiev would not use Taurus long-range missiles to launch attacks on areas beyond what he said were his country’s "internationally recognized borders," if it should receive such armaments from Berlin.
"Ukraine will not use Taurus cruise missiles outside the internationally recognized borders of our country," Kuleba said in an interview with Germany’s Welt television.
"I would hate to put pressure on him [German Chancellor Olaf Scholz], but I hope that the decision will be made soon, rather than in a few months’ time," Kuleba said, referring to potential missile supplies to Kiev. "We have repeatedly come across this topic since last year," he said, noting that it was Scholz’s prerogative to authorize the delivery of Taurus missiles from Germany’s inventories. "We know that the chancellor is currently considering this [issue]," Kuleba added.
Commenting on potential talks with Russia, Kuleba warned that "Ukraine will not cede a square meter of its territory." "Full stop. No discussions [on this]," he said. "Secondly, every new demarcation line that can be imagined - and I am aware that there are those expressing such wishes outside of Ukraine - would not end the war," Ukraine’s top diplomat stated.
Earlier, Germany’s Der Spiegel news magazine wrote that the German government was considering supplying Taurus missiles from Bundeswehr stockpiles to the Kiev regime in the next few months and highly classified talks with defense industry representatives were purportedly underway. According to the weekly, Scholz wanted to have technical modifications made to the Taurus missiles so they would not be capable of delivering strikes on Russian territory.
About 600 Taurus missiles were purchased for the Bundeswehr a decade ago. The missiles are considered to be similar to UK-made Storm Shadows, which have already been delivered to Ukraine. However, the range of the German-Swedish missiles is slightly longer. Russia has repeatedly said that Western weapons sent to Kiev and Western assistance in training the Ukrainian military would only prolong the conflict without changing the situation on the battlefield.