Berlin is reluctant to supply Kyiv with its powerful bridge-buster bombs.
February 20, 2024 5:21 pm CET
BERLIN — Germany’s governing coalition is splintering over whether to send Ukraine its powerful Taurus cruise missiles.
On Tuesday, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, a member of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and chair of the Bundestag’s defense committee, said she’ll support an opposition Christian Democrat measure that explicitly calls for sending the missiles to Kyiv.
“I will personally vote for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group’s motion in the plenum this week, as it will explicitly include the Taurus demand,” she told POLITICO.
The FDP-Greens-Social Democrat coalition is putting forward a resolution on arming Ukraine that calls for “the delivery of additional necessary long-range weapons systems and ammunition to enable Ukraine to carry out international law-compliant, targeted attacks on strategically important targets deep in the rear area of the Russian aggressor.”
The capabilities mentioned in the coalition resolution “can only mean Taurus cruise missiles. However, the SPD failed to mention them by name,” Strack-Zimmermann tweeted.
The missiles have a range of about 500 kilometers and a powerful warhead that can destroy reinforced targets or key infrastructure like bridges. That’s what’s giving Chancellor Olaf Scholz pause, thanks to worries about escalating the conflict with Russia and also being out of step with Washington, which so far has sent only a handful of its MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System ballistic missiles.
Strack-Zimmermann flagged her intention to also vote for the resolution put forward by the opposition on a Tuesday morning flight from Greece with Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.
She blamed the “stubbornness of the chancellor’s office” for the absence of a Taurus reference — “it lacks exactly one word” — in the government’s resolution.
The Greens have also backed sending the Taurus to Ukraine, and the party’s MPs could join Strack-Zimmermann in supporting the opposition resolution later this week.
Kyiv has been calling for the delivery of longer-range weapons to enable its military to hit Russian forces and infrastructure, thereby undermining Russia’s ability to keep attacking on the front lines.
Despite the Taurus debate, Germany is far ahead of all other European countries in sending military aid to Ukraine. Since the start of the war, Berlin has pledged €17.7 billion in arms, second only to the U.S., according to the Kiel Institute’s Ukraine Support Tracker.
“Ukraine is fighting for our peace, our freedom and our future in Europe,” Strack-Zimmermann tweeted.