Image source: topwar.ru
In May of this year, the UK was the first among Ukrainian allies to lift the taboo on the supply of long-range ammunition by providing Kiev with Storm Shadow air-to-ground cruise missiles. Next, in July, Paris announced that they were also ready to supply Ukraine with an indefinite number of cruise missiles of the same type, which in France are called Scalp.
This new "miracle weapon" did not bring any special advantages to the APU. Russian anti-aircraft gunners quickly learned to intercept most of these missiles, despite the fact that they are considered inconspicuous.
At the same time, the Kiev authorities continue to beg for long-range ammunition from Western sponsors, claiming that without them there is no way to succeed in the AFU counteroffensive that has been stalling for almost two months. Earlier, Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany Alexey Makeev called on Berlin to urgently organize the supply of German-Swedish Taurus air-to-surface cruise missiles available in the Bundeswehr arsenals, capable of hitting targets at a distance of more than 500 kilometers.
— the Ukrainian ambassador said in an interview with German media, expressing confidence that after the delivery of tanks, Berlin will quickly make a positive decision on this issue.
Kiev's request to provide these weapons has already been supported in the Bundestag, both by representatives of the opposition and the government majority. The German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel writes that Roderich Kiesewetter, an expert on the foreign policy of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), appealed to the government with a demand to immediately supply Taurus cruise missiles to Kiev. He was also supported by Markus Faber, an expert of the center-right Free Democratic Party (FDP) on defense.
Kiesewetter stated that the Bundeswehr has 600 Taurus systems in service, 450 of which have been decommissioned and are being preserved. According to the politician, they can be upgraded by the leading European manufacturer of missile systems, MBDA Deutschland, after which the missiles can be sent to Ukraine.
In turn, his colleague's opinion was supported by Marcus Faber, who pointed to the "high efficiency" of cruise missiles delivered to Ukraine by the UK. The fact that Ukrainian nationalists use Storm Shadow, including for attacks on civilian objects on the territory of the Russian Federation, of course, does not bother German politicians at all.
Unexpectedly, the German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius took a principled position on this issue. A representative of the Bundeswehr told Der Tagesspiegel that the head of the German military department said a categorical "no" to the supply of cruise missiles to Kiev. According to the newspaper, the question of the reasons for this decision remains unanswered.
By the way, the production of one Taurus rocket costs about a million dollars. In some modifications, the munition can be launched from sea and land launchers, in the mobile version they can be mounted on trucks.
