Olaf Scholz today rejected the option of giving Ukraine Taurus cruise missiles. The reason: the need to involve German soldiers to help operate them. The message is from Reuters, quoted by BTA.
In Moscow, they continue to comment and ask: how controllable is the Bundeswehr.
“You can’t deliver a very long-range weapon system and not think about how to control it. If you want to control them, and that is only possible with the participation of German soldiers, then that is not up for discussion,” Scholz said.
Reuters recalls that so far Germany has rejected the possibility of sending “Taurus” to Ukraine, worried that it could be involved in a direct confrontation with Russia. The issue escalated after Russian media on Friday published a 38-minute recording of a conversation in which German officers can be heard discussing arms supplies to Ukraine. As well as – potential strikes by Kiev against the Crimean bridge.
Earlier, Scholz argued to journalists his refusal to provide Kiev with Taurus missiles by saying that it might be necessary to send German military personnel to Ukraine.
They had to program the missiles. “This is a weapon with a very long range,” Scholz said in Berlin, quoted by the publication “Poltiiko” and BTA.
“And what the British and the French are doing in terms of target control and target control support cannot be done in Germany,” Scholz added.
And got an angry response from London. The German chancellor’s conclusion that British and French personnel were operating cruise missiles provided to Ukraine was “wrong, irresponsible and a slap in the face to allies”. This was stated on Thursday by the chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the British Parliament, Alicia Cairns, Politico quoted her.
Scholz, however, promised a speedy resolution to the recording case. This is a “very serious matter”, the chancellor said during his visit to the Vatican on Saturday, as quoted by DPA and BTA. “Right now, this matter is being clarified very carefully, very intensively and very quickly.”
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