As of: February 3, 2024, 4:46 a.m
By: Kilian Beck
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Taurus cruise missiles for Great Britain and British Storm Shadows for Ukraine?
Exchanging rings is not an option for FDP politician Strack-Zimmermann.
Berlin – The dispute in the traffic light coalition over the Taurus cruise missiles continues.
Defense Committee Chairwoman Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP) was asked about the Taurus ring exchange on the ZDF program
Maybrit Illner
and answered metaphorically: “Someone let go of a balloon and it burst on the way up.”
An exchange of rings with Great Britain, which would deliver more of the Storm Shadow type of its own production to Ukraine in return for German Taurus missiles, has been in discussion since the end of January.
The deliveries have been disputed for months.
Arguing over the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine: Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) and defense expert Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP).
© Andrea Bienert/Bundeswehr/Christian Charisius/Henning Kaiser/dpa/Montage
Zelensky is hoping for Taurus cruise missiles from Germany
Most recently, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyj, hoped in the ARD interview that Ukraine would receive Taurus from Germany.
In the interview, he didn't want to go into detail about where he got this hope from.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is currently refusing to deliver the weapons to the country attacked by Russia.
Christian Mölling, security policy expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations, told
ZDF
that supplying the weapons would make sense because, compared to the British cruise missiles, they would significantly improve “Ukraine's ability to act”.
But it is not a weapon that fundamentally changes the course of war.
The Ukraine War developed into a war of position and attrition at the latest with the failure of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Russia also specifically attacks civilian infrastructure.
Strack-Zimmermann describes Scholz’s concerns about escalation as “nonsense”
The aim is to destroy as much of the enemy's logistics as possible, said Mölling.
This is exactly what the Taurus could be helpful for.
Scholz always justified his stance with concern about the escalation of the war.
Strack-Zimmermann (FDP)
repeatedly described this to
Maybrit Illner as “nonsense”.
She assumes that Scholz is not releasing the cruise missiles “simply because he doesn’t want to.”
One concern Scholz expressed is that the Taurus could reach Russian territory and this could lead to an escalation.
Strack-Zimmermann recently criticized a ring exchange with Great Britain as “unsuitable” to
IPPEN.MEDIA
because the Storm Shadows were technically inferior to the Taurus.
The Green European Committee chairman Anton Hofreiter also called for Taurus deliveries to Ukraine.
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) is “tired” of the ongoing debate, said the SPD politician on Wednesday evening (January 31) during the budget discussions in the Bundestag.
Although Germany is Ukraine's second-largest supporter, the only discussion is about a special weapons system - "as if it were a matter of whether we deliver everything we can or whether we also take a bit of freedom and responsibility for ourselves in making this decision meet".
(kb with dpa)