The German Bundestag calls on Chancellor Scholz to provide Ukraine with long-range weapons
The German Bundestag called on Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday to provide Ukraine with additional long-range weapons in its war against Russia.
Lawmakers from the three-party ruling coalition led by Scholz on Thursday passed the resolution calling for an expansion of the aid, shortly after rejecting a separate motion from the opposition calling on Scholz in particular to supply Ukraine with the Taurus missiles it has demanded.
Scholz, who is a member of the Social Democratic Party, refuses to hand over Taurus missiles for fear that they could be used to strike targets inside Russia itself and further escalate the conflict.
Ukraine has officially requested Germany in May 2023 to obtain Taurus missiles that are launched from aircraft, as a type of guided missile, and can hit targets at a distance of up to 500 kilometers.
It should be noted that the Russian capital, Moscow, is located on a straight line less than 500 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, meaning that it’s within range of these missiles.
On Thursday, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius pledged to continue military support for Ukraine, but he didn’t decide whether this also included Taurus missiles or not, and left the matter open for discussion about the Ukrainian war in the Bundestag that took place on Friday.
Germany is second only to the United States in terms of military and economic support for Ukraine since the beginning of the war with Russia.
According to the German Ministry of Defense, the total value of German military shipments has reached about 6 billion Euros ($6.5 billion) since the outbreak of the war.
