2024-03-04 01:38:07
The Chancellor had left the public in the dark for a long time. Now he spoke out on the subject of Taurus cruise missiles – and received opposition from all sides.
While more and more Ukrainian towns on the front in Ukraine are being taken over by the Russian invading army every day, while more and more Ukrainian soldiers are dying, being taken prisoner or are presumably being executed by Russian aggressors, the German Chancellor has now commented in detail for the first time why Germany is not supplying Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine.
His argument is: “German soldiers must not be linked to the goals that this system achieves at any point or place. Not even in Germany.” He said this on Monday at an editors-in-chief conference of the dpa news agency. “I’m surprised that some people aren’t moved at all, that they don’t even think about whether what we’re doing could, in a sense, lead to participation in the war.”
Video | This is how the high-tech weapon “Taurus” works
He is supported by Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. “Of course” the Bundeswehr should not become a party to the war. “Actually, everyone knows this argument,” said the SPD politician. He rejected the objection that other countries also used Taurus systems without Bundeswehr soldiers.
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The Kremlin will have received the news with goodwill. Russia’s dictator is likely to feel vindicated in his course of intimidating the West.
In this country, there is great outrage among parts of the public over the Chancellor’s no to Taurus. Above all, Scholz’s justification causes heads to shake, as the Chancellor claimed at the media meeting that the stationing of German soldiers in Ukraine was also necessary for the delivery and targeting of the Taurus system.
“Olaf Scholz cites an argument that has long been refuted against the delivery of Taurus,” writes FDP MP Agnes Strack-Zimmermann at Defense politician. There are already a lot of German-made programmed weapons in Ukraine: “If that is the argument, we would have to immediately withdraw all automatic weapons that respond to attacks. I think that is pretextual.”
The CDU foreign expert Norbert Röttgen was also stunned in an initial reaction on Platform
Military expert contradicts Scholz
The reaction of the Green Bundestag Vice President Katrin Göring-Eckardt also shows how great the disappointment with the Chancellor himself is in the traffic light coalition. “Nobody who demands Taurus for Ukraine wants Germany to become a war party,” she told the Germany editorial network. But: “For peace in Europe and beyond, it is essential that Ukraine wins this defensive battle.”
The main argument that Scholz now cites when he refuses Taurus deliveries relates to the possible use of Bundeswehr soldiers to control the systems. But independent experts such as security advisor Gustav Gressel from the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) also pick apart the Chancellor’s argument. The Bundeswehr does not have to be responsible for handing over and operating the Taurus cruise missiles. “It’s a manufacturer matter,” Gressel told ntv.de.
It was similar with the delivery of the Iris-T systems to Ukraine. In addition, Germany delivered Taurus to its strategic partner South Korea in 2014 without the need for a Bundeswehr mandate. “It is the manufacturer’s job to travel to the place where the Taurus is being handed over and look at the associated carriers and take over the programming.”