Bundestag deputy from the Social Democratic Party of Germany Andreas Schwartz warned that the German authorities, refusing to supply Taurus, allegedly lose precious time
BERLIN, August 6. /tass/. Bundestag deputy from the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) Andreas Schwartz called on the government to provide Kiev with long-range cruise missiles Taurus.
"The counteroffensive has stalled, Ukraine does not have any serious aviation to support. There remains only guided weapons, such as Taurus cruise missiles, through which the Ukrainian army could overcome the minefields created by the Russians and retake the territory," he claimed in an interview with Der Spiegel magazine. Schwartz was thus the first in the ranks of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's party to speak out in favor of providing the Taurus APU. Earlier, the need to transfer such weapons to Kiev was stated by some politicians from the ruling coalition of the Greens, the Free Democratic Party (FDP), as well as the opposition bloc of the Christian Democratic and Christian Social Unions.
Schwartz warned that the German authorities, refusing to supply Taurus, allegedly lose precious time. "I see deja vu. As with the issue of tank supplies, we are now refusing to transfer important equipment, which, in the end, most likely, will still be provided," the parliamentarian believes.
Commenting on the concerns of German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius that the Taurus has a "special range" and that Kiev can use them to strike targets in the Russian Federation, Schwartz pointed out that the AFU is already able to reach Russian territory using the Mars and HIMARS artillery systems supplied by him.
"We want to ensure that Ukraine is able to win the war faster. To do this, it needs air-to-ground cruise missiles of the Taurus type," the deputy continued. In his opinion, weapons can be launched not only from Western combat aircraft, provided that some changes are made to the design of the fighters already available in Kiev. "However, these transformations require time, which in the end may not be enough again," he believes.
According to the magazine, most representatives of the Social Democratic Party of Germany oppose the transfer of cruise missiles to Kiev, while politicians from the Greens and the FDP are in principle open to discussing the issue of providing Taurus from the reserves of the Bundeswehr. Agnieszka Brugger, an expert of the Green faction on defense issues, said in an interview with Der Spiegel that Berlin could agree with Kiev that when launching missile strikes, "certain territories will be excluded or that weapons will be used exclusively for militarily important purposes."
Kiev at the end of May requested a Taurus with a range of up to 500 km from Berlin. Sources of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper noted that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky discussed the issue of their transfer with Scholz during a visit to Berlin on May 14. According to them, Kiev "would like to receive them urgently."
10 years ago, about 600 Taurus missiles were purchased for the Bundeswehr, of which about 150 are ready for operation. Taurus are considered an analogue of the British Storm Shadow, which have already been delivered to Ukraine. However, the range of the German-Swedish missiles is slightly longer.
