Pistorius warns against supply of Taurus cruise missile to Ukraine

Emmanuel Thomas, DPA, Wednesday, May 24, 2023

 

BERLIN – German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius has expressed caution about a proposal to supply German Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine.

He did not want to go into every single weapon system and give a hypothetical answer to a hypothetical question, he said on Tuesday on the sidelines of the EU defence ministers’ meeting in Brussels.

“I think it has proved its worth that we do not permanently proceed in this way or draw red or white lines,” Pistorius said.

Ukraine should be helped significantly and responsibly, he said. “We should support Ukraine with all the systems permissible under international law that it takes to win this war and that we are capable of giving.”

Asked whether he also saw a danger in a possible delivery of F-16 fighter jets, he said he didn’t see “any risk of escalation at that point.”

The German opposition CDU’s defence expert Roderich Kiesewetter has spoken out in favour of the delivery of German Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine.

“Ukraine’s partners must now go all-in and supply Ukraine with everything that Ukraine can use in the battle of the linked weapons and that is permissible under international law,” Kiesewetter told Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland.

The guided weapons with a range of up to 500 kilometres could be a “very helpful contribution from Germany.” Around 600 Taurus were procured for the Bundeswehr 10 years ago and of these, “around 150” are still operational today, he added.

Joint military support for Ukraine is top of the agenda at the meeting of EU defence ministers in Brussels on Tuesday. Supplies from the EU should prevent bottlenecks in the Ukrainian armed forces and enable them to launch new offensives against the Russian invaders.