Germany Ready To Give Taurus To Ukraine
- 14.04.2025, 10:23
Long-range cruise missiles will help to destroy the Crimean bridge.
Future German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has reiterated that he is ready to approve the transfer of long-range Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine as part of defence support.
This is reported by the Financial Times..
The German politician, who is due to take office as chancellor next month, emphasised the need to put Ukraine ‘on the front line’ and force Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to make concessions and end the war.
Merz sharply condemned the Russian missile attack targeting the town of Sumy, which was carried out on 13 April, Palm Sunday. He called such shelling a ‘serious war crime’ and added that Ukraine needs help to ‘move forward’ in the conflict.
Asked whether he would fulfil the previous call for the FRG to hand over to Ukraine the Taurus missiles that official Kyiv has long asked Berlin for, Merz said he was ready to do so if it was done in coordination with European allies.
‘Our European partners are already supplying cruise missiles. The British are doing it, the French are doing it, and the Americans are still doing it,’ he told public broadcaster ARD on Sunday night.
Merz also added that it should be ‘jointly agreed, and if agreed, Germany should participate.’
Commenting on US President Donald Trump's efforts to negotiate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, the future German chancellor warned that Putin would not ‘respond favourably to weakness and peace proposals’.
Merz noted that the strike in Sumy, which killed at least 34 civilians and injured 117, is ‘what Putin does to those who are talking to him about a ceasefire’.
The German politician also added that at ‘some point (Putin) has to recognise the hopelessness of this war, which means we have to help Ukraine’.
On Sunday, Merz not only said he was ready to supply Taurus missiles for Ukraine, but also suggested they could be used to strike targets such as the Crimean Bridge, illegally built by Russian invaders and considered a ‘symbol of Putin's occupation’ of the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014.
The range of Taurus missiles is 500 kilometres, ATACMS - up to 300 kilometres, Storm Shadow / SCALP-EG - from 140 to 550 kilometres.