BERLIN, February 21. /TASS/. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz supports the Bundestag’s proposed resolution calling to provide Ukraine with long-range weapons, but he has not reversed his position regarding the transfer of such weapons as Taurus cruise missiles to Kiev.
"As far as the supply of the special combat system is concerned, he [the chancellor] sticks to his position," German government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit said without mentioning the Taurus missiles by name.
Earlier, the coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Greens, and the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) submitted a resolution to the Bundestag, which says that the long-term military support for Ukraine involves "the delivery of additional necessary long-range weapons systems and ammunition" in order to enable Ukraine to carry out "targeted attacks on strategically important targets deep behind the lines of" the Russian forces. The capabilities mentioned in the resolution do not mention the Taurus cruise missiles by name, but local experts believe they are the ones in question.
The resolution is putting more pressure on Scholz to deliver Taurus missiles to Kiev. To this point, he has been reticent to give in to Ukraine’s requests to provide these missiles and last October he backed out of the deliveries for the time being. He has reiterated that all arms supplies are negotiated with allies, including those across the ocean, and pointed out that Germany’s military aid strategy for Ukraine was still to give air defense systems and artillery ammunition.
On January 17, the Bundestag overwhelmingly voted down the CDU/CSU resolution on the Taurus shipments. Ten years ago, about 600 of these missiles were purchased for the Bundeswehr. Taurus cruise missiles have been compared to the UK’s Storm Shadow, which have already been given to Ukraine. However, the German-Swedish missiles have a slightly longer range - up to 500 kilometers.