NEW YORK, March 4. /TASS/. The US, the UK and France may secretly be aiding Ukraine in target designation for missile, The New York Times says, pointing to statements made by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz

Acceding to the newspaper, first, French President Emmanuel Macron "angered his NATO allies by suggesting that soon the West could be forced to send troops to Ukraine, portending a direct confrontation with Russian forces that the rest of the alliance has long rejected." Then, the German Chancellor "took his own turn exposing new divisions." Recently, Scholz has been speaking against sending Taurus missiles to Kiev, justifying it, in particular, by the fact that German specialists must be present in Ukraine to program and target these missiles. He hinted that "Britain, France and the United States may secretly be helping Ukraine target similar weapons" - a step that "Germany simply could not take."

The New York Times points out that neither the UK nor France made any official comments, because they almost never disclose how their weapons, handed over to Kiev, are being used. It underscored that NATO will now have to find some combination of weapons and financial support that would not cause a direct confrontation with Russia, which will become a difficult task for Scholz.

On March 1, RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan said that, on the very day that Scholz announced that NATO does not take part and will not take part in the conflict, high-ranking German officers were discussing an option of an attack on the Crimean Bridge without consequences for German authorities. She cited an audio recording and published the transcript of the conversation. According to the transcript, the officers discussed if Taurus missiles are able to destroy the Crimean Bridge, as well as details of the attack. After the Antalya diplomatic forum, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the recording a "screaming exposure."

Scholz has repeatedly underscored that he opposes sending Taurus missiles to Ukraine, justifying it by the risk of Germany getting pulled into the conflict. During the meeting with the people in Dresden earlier, the Chancellor once again spoke against sending Taurus missiles to Kiev, saying that, with improper programming, these missiles can reach targets in Moscow.