On Thursday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that he was reluctant to send the Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine due to their range being long enough to hit Russian territory if used incorrectly. He said it was fraught with making Germany a party to the conflict with Russia.
UK ministers and other high-ranking officials have repeatedly given Berlin to understand that Ukraine needed its Taurus missiles badly, Bloomberg cited its sources as saying. London has even proposed several compromise solutions, such as sending Ukraine its own long-range Storm Shadow missiles and then replenishing the stock by buying Taurus missiles from Germany, the report read.
At the same time, some UK politicians and lawmakers have been vocal with their criticism of Scholz's stance and also of his comment to the effect that, that unlike the UK and France, which provide Ukraine with training to operate long-range missiles, Germany would not do it and no German soldier would set foot on Ukrainian soil.
The main issue with the supply of Taurus missiles is their range of 500 kilometers (311 miles), which makes them capable of striking deep into Russian territory. Berlin has previously not supplied Kiev with weapons with similar characteristics.
The German expert community has even discussed whether the missiles could be programmed so that they could not be used to strike the Russian territory. It was precisely this issue that interested Scholz, and therefore negotiations were allegedly held with representatives of the military industry, Der Spiegel magazine reported.