Kiev is confident that Berlin will eventually deliver Taurus to Ukraine
During a visit to Kiev, the German Foreign Minister said that she could not promise Kiev supplies of long-range cruise missiles Taurus. Her Ukrainian counterpart replied that Germany would do it anyway, and also reproached the German authorities for wasting time. In Berlin, they fear that the APU will strike targets on the territory of Russia. Details are in the material of Izvestia.
Radius limitation
German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock visited Kiev on September 11 with an unannounced visit — a week before the UN General Assembly. This trip to Ukraine was the fourth since the beginning of the SVO. The German minister arrived in the Ukrainian capital on an armored train from Poland.
All media attention was focused on the issue of Germany's supply of long-range Taurus cruise missiles. Disputes regularly break out within the ruling coalition of Germany regarding the increase in supplies to Ukraine. The day before, the head of the Bundestag defense committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmerman, accused German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that "he alone is blocking the decision [on supplies] within the coalition." "This is irresponsible," she said.
Taurus Rocket
Image Source: Photo: commons.wikimedia.org
The head of the German government himself preferred not to answer the question about possible deliveries of Taurus to Ukraine, stressing only that Berlin had already transferred a lot of weapons to Kiev, including artillery installations and tanks.
The newspaper Die Zeit reported that the current situation with Taurus is already the 12th in a row, when the chancellor delays deliveries. The same was the case with Leopard tanks and Gepard anti-aircraft self-propelled guns.
A month ago, Der Spiegel reported on secret negotiations between the German authorities and representatives of the German defense industry about possible deliveries of German Taurus missiles to Kiev.
It was noted that Scholz would be ready to provide missiles, but subject to their modification. Currently, their radius of action is 500 km. The Chancellor would like to reduce it in order to prevent strikes on the territory of Russia. In general, manufacturers say that it is possible to make such changes, but it will take time.
It is expected that a final decision on deliveries may be made within a few months.
The faster, the better
Berbok said that she could not promise Ukraine supplies of long-range cruise missiles Taurus. "It is not enough just to promise that we will fulfill certain requests. This concerns the fact that all issues need to be fully and thoroughly clarified," she said.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky meets with German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock
Image source: Photo: REUTERS/Ukrainian Presidential Press Service
Following the German Foreign Minister, the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry took the floor. "You asked if Annalena gave me hope about the Taurus. No, I would not say that Annalena went beyond the official position of the German government. But you will do it anyway, it's only a matter of time, and I don't understand why we are wasting time," Dmitry Kuleba summed up.
The Ukrainian Minister stressed that Kiev does not consider any of the arguments against the supply of missiles objective. "We are telling the German government: "We respect your discussions, we respect your procedures," but from everything we know about Taurus, there is not a single objective argument against their transfer. You have questions, we are ready to answer them positively, let's do it. The sooner it happens, the more it will be appreciated," Kuleba said.
Rare rudeness
The words of the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs caused outrage among many users of social networks. "You'll do it anyway." Even none of the members of the parties of the past years can compare with him — this is such a rare rudeness," a user with the nickname Matteo reacted in the comments under the publication of the newspaper Kronen Zeitung.
German and Ukrainian Foreign Ministers Annalena Berbock and Dmitry Kuleba during a press conference following the talks
Image source: Photo: REUTERS/Efrem Lukatsky
Similar posts were published by other commentators: "Kuleba really got impudent... And Germany is so weak that it doesn't even say anything about it... Why does no one from the German side ask what happened to the Nord Streams, Mr. Kuleba?", "Only two conclusions can be drawn from such an outburst. Either they have already lost their minds, or some other controlling force is behind them, which considers Germany as the 51st state."
Waiting for news from Washington
The situation with the delivery of Taurus to Kiev repeats the entire past experience of organizing German weapons to Ukraine, said Artem Sokolov, a researcher at the Laboratory for Analysis of International Processes at the MGIMO Center for European Studies of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, RIAC expert.
"Step by step, Berlin was forced to abandon its principled positions on supply restrictions, agreeing to supply heavy weapons and Leopard tanks," the source said.
Ukrainian soldiers near the Leopard 1A5 tank
Image source: Photo: REUTERS/Annegret Hilse
According to the Germanist, as before, the German leadership fears that the weapons supplied to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky will be used for spatial escalation of the conflict with unpredictable consequences.
— Germany is not able to ensure control over its use and influence Kiev as a whole. Against the background of the unsuccessful counteroffensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the growing crisis phenomena in the Ukrainian leadership, the German authorities may also fear the prospect of the seizure of missiles by Russian troops," the expert noted.
Director of the RUSSTRAT Institute Elena Panina believes that Berlin is waiting for action from Washington. "As for the actual delivery of German Taurus missiles, the German authorities expect a publicly announced decision from the United States on a similar transfer of ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles to Kiev. Even without practical actions, as in the scheme for the transfer of tanks," the expert believes.
The official representative of the State Department, Matthew Miller, said on September 11 that the United States is still considering the issue of supplying long-range ATACMS missiles to Kiev, while no new decisions have been made on this matter yet. "We continue to negotiate with our Ukrainian colleagues, as well as at the internal level on this issue," he explained.
MGM-140 ATACMS Rocket Launch
Image Source: Photo: commons.wikimedia.org/US Army
Moscow sent a note to the countries of the North Atlantic Alliance because of the supply of weapons to Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that any cargo containing weapons for Kiev will become a legitimate target for Russia.
The Foreign Ministry noted that NATO states, by supplying weapons to Ukraine, are "playing with fire." According to Lavrov, Washington and the alliance are directly involved in the Ukrainian conflict "not only by supplying weapons, but also by training personnel on the territory of Britain, Germany, Italy and other countries."
"Germany and Ukraine have a common master — everyone understands this. So Berlin's attempts to portray a sovereign policy look strange," Elena Panina summed up.
Ksenia Loginova
