Scholz's refusal to send Taurus to Ukraine becoming increasingly unclear - Heusgen

Christoph Heusgen, head of the Munich Security Conference, believes that the position of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on the unacceptability of supplying Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine is becoming increasingly unclear.

He stated this in an interview with RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND), Ukrinform reports.

Heusgen asked Scholz to reconsider his rejection of the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles after the U.S. supplied Ukraine with ATACMS missiles.

"In this context, the Chancellor's decision not to deliver the Taurus missiles to Ukraine is becoming increasingly incomprehensible. […] We are currently seeing how similar U.S. weapons – the ATACMS – are having a major impact," the diplomat said.

He noted that the training of the Ukrainian military on the Taurus system could have been started a long time ago in order to put it into operation without the need to deploy Bundeswehr soldiers.

"In recent weeks, we Europeans had to painfully realize that our arms supplies to Ukraine are not enough to stop Russia's brutal aggression," Heusgen said.

He said Vladimir Putin will agree to negotiations only if he is convinced that he cannot win this war.

On April 24, Washington confirmed the delivery of ATACMS missiles with a range of up to 300 kilometers to Ukraine. The U.S. earlier supplied Ukraine only with ATACMS missiles with a range of 165 kilometers.

After that, there were hopes that Scholz, who has been rejecting Ukraine's request to hand over the Taurus with a range of up to 500 kilometers for months, would change his decision, but the chancellor confirmed his disagreement.

Kyiv turned to Berlin with a request for this weapons system in May 2023.