Touching upon the possibility of negotiations with Russia, Dmitry Kuleba said that "Ukraine will not give up a single square meter of its territory"
BERLIN, September 6. /tass/. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba assured that in case of receiving Taurus long-range missiles from Germany, Kiev will not use them outside the "internationally recognized borders" of his country.
"Ukraine will not use Taurus cruise missiles outside the internationally recognized borders of our country," the minister said in an interview with Welt TV channel.
"I would not like to put pressure on him [German Chancellor Olaf Scholz], but I hope that the decision will be made quickly, and not just in a few months," Kuleba said, referring to the prospects of transferring missiles to Kiev. "We have been constantly confronted with this topic since last year," Kuleba said. He said that the decision on the delivery of Taurus depends only on Scholz: "We know that this is now under consideration by the Chancellor."
Touching upon the possibility of negotiations with Russia, Kuleba said that "Ukraine will not give up a single square meter of its territory." "Period. There is no discussion [on this matter]," he said. "Secondly, every new demarcation line that can be imagined in any way, and I know that there are such wishes outside of Ukraine - it would not end the war," the minister believes.
Scholz has repeatedly said that all steps on arms supplies are coordinated with partners, including overseas. He noted that the priority of Germany is still to provide Ukraine with air defense and artillery ammunition. The main reason why the German authorities are afraid to deliver missiles to Kiev is the fear that the APU will use them to strike targets on the territory of the Russian Federation.
Earlier, Der Spiegel magazine wrote that the German government is studying ways to supply Ukraine with Taurus missiles from the Bundeswehr reserves in the coming months and that carefully classified negotiations are allegedly underway with representatives of the defense industry. According to him, Scholz, through technical modifications of the Taurus, wants to completely exclude the possibility of Ukraine striking Russian territory with long-range weapons. In the last few weeks, the German Ministry of Defense, as the publication wrote, appealed to the Taurus manufacturer with a request to include an appropriate restriction on target programming in cruise missiles.
10 years ago, about 600 Taurus were purchased for the Bundeswehr. These missiles are considered an analogue of the British Storm Shadow, which have already been delivered to Ukraine. However, the range of German-Swedish missiles is slightly longer, it is up to 500 km. The Russian side has repeatedly stressed that the West's sending of weapons to Kiev and assistance in training the Ukrainian military only prolong the conflict and will not change the situation on the battlefield.
