Chancellor Olaf Scholz has ruled out the delivery of long-range precision weapons to Ukraine in the future, regardless of decisions made by the alliance partners. At a citizens’ dialogue in Prenzlau, Brandenburg, he reiterated his opposition to the delivery of the Taurus cruise missiles, which have a range from Ukraine to Moscow (around 500 kilometers), on the grounds that this would entail “a great risk of escalation.”
“I said no. And of course that also applies to other weapons, if we had delivered them, that could fire at that great distance,” said Scholz. “It will stay that way. (…) Even if other countries decide differently.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky keeps asking the allies for long-range weapons so that they can attack Russian logistics and air force airfields far behind the front line, even on Russian territory. The longest-range weapon supplied by Germany is the Mars II rocket launcher, which can hit targets 84 kilometers away.
For a limited area around Kharkiv, the German government has authorized the use of this weapon or the Panzerhaubitze 2000 with a range of 56 kilometers against targets on Russian soil.
Russian threats
NATO partners the USA, Great Britain and France have delivered cruise missiles with ranges of up to 300 kilometers. A discussion is currently underway about whether the use of these weapons against targets on Russian territory should be permitted in principle. However, US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer did not make a decision on this at a meeting in Washington on Friday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared that he would view the use of long-range Western precision weapons against targets deep within Russian territory as NATO’s involvement in the war. “This will mean that NATO countries, the USA, and European countries will fight with Russia.” Russia’s UN ambassador Vasily Nebenzya even referred to Russia’s nuclear weapons in the United Nations Security Council.
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