Berlin declared Kyiv’s right to attack Russian territory with Taurus missiles

The Chairman of the Bundestag Defense Committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, called for an urgent start to deliveries of long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine, calling their use against targets on Russian territory justified. She stated this in an interview with the Funke media group.

“We must now urgently deliver the Taurus <...> Yes, [к легитимным целям] This includes Crimea, through which the supply of the Russian army is organized,” said the parliamentarian (quote according to TASS).

According to Zimmerman, the use of such missiles would allow the Ukrainian Armed Forces to disrupt the supply of Russian troops, and without Western support for Kyiv, Russia would have already “destroyed” Ukraine.

The fact that Ukraine has requested from Germany the supply of Taurus missiles with a flight range of up to 500 km became known at the end of May. As the media wrote, Berlin purchased about 600 Taurus ten years ago, of which only 150 missiles can now operate. Initially, the German authorities opposed the supply of such missiles to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

In August, Der Spiegel magazine reported that the German government was studying the possibility of supplying Taurus missiles to Ukraine in the coming months. According to the publication, Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants to technically limit the programming of missiles in order to exclude the possibility of Ukrainian Armed Forces strikes on Russian territory.

The Russian Ambassador to Germany, Sergei Nechaev, said in turn that the supply of new weapons “only prolongs the conflict and increases the number of victims.” In mid-September, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius statedthat Berlin could decide to hand over the Taurus in the coming weeks.

Now long-range missiles are officially supplied to Ukraine by two countries – Great Britain and France. We are talking about Storm Shadow missiles and their analogue SCALP-EG, both air-launched. Earlier, the media reported that US President Joe Biden promised Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to transfer a small batch of ATACMS shells to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Prior to this, US Presidential Assistant for National Security Jake Sullivan said that the American authorities would not yet supply these missiles to Ukraine.