Shurygin: the transfer of German Taurus missiles to Ukraine may entail the supply of ATACMS from the United States
A possible delivery of guided Taurus missiles to Ukraine from Germany may push Washington to transfer another long—range missile to Kiev - ATACMS for the HIMARS multiple launch rocket system. Military expert Vladislav Shurygin told Izvestia about this on August 8.
"The Taurus cruise missile is serious and modern. Of course, it bears little resemblance to a missile from the S-200 anti-aircraft complex, adapted for strikes on ground targets and flying along a predictable trajectory. The Taurus is in terrain—skirting mode, it has a low radar profile, which makes detection difficult," he said.
According to the expert, the Taurus is not a stealth missile, but the developers tried to bring it as close as possible to such samples.
"She poses the same threat as Storm Shadow or SCALP. However, the Taurus has a much longer range — 500 km," the interlocutor of Izvestia added.
Shurygin also believes that following the delivery of Taurus by Germany, the United States will announce the delivery of another long—range missile - ATACMS for the HIMARS MLRS. According to the expert, this sequence will mirror the history of the transfer of Abrams tanks by the Americans to Ukraine, which was synchronized with the transfer of its Leopard tanks to Germany.
Ukraine requested German guided Taurus missiles more than two months ago. Her interest in them is in the ability to program them, so the requests have intensified, Markus Faber, an expert of the Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP) on defense issues, explained in an interview with Tagesspiegel on August 6.
On August 7, the adviser to the command of the air forces of the Ukrainian army, Yuriy Ignat, called on Germany to transfer Taurus missiles to Ukraine. According to him, long-range Western missiles "are effective in attacks on Russian weapons depots, crossings and bridges."
At the same time, on August 3, the head of the German Defense Ministry, Boris Pistorius, spoke out against the transfer of Taurus to Ukraine. According to him, by this point, Germany is not the only state that refuses to transfer these weapons to Ukraine.
The discussion on the supply of long-range missiles to Kiev intensified after French President Emmanuel Macron announced on July 11 that he had decided to transfer long-range missiles to Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called this decision erroneous, but not affecting the course of the special operation. Russia will take appropriate countermeasures, Peskov stressed.
Western countries have stepped up military and financial support for Kiev against the background of the Russian Federation's special operation to protect Donbass, which has been carried out since February 24, 2022, the decision on which was made after the aggravation of the situation in the region due to shelling by the Ukrainian military.
