Member of Bundestag on Taurus missiles for Ukraine: Better to hold off for now

There are several negative consequences for the Bundeswehr if the decision to transfer long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine is adopted, German Bundestag deputy from the Social Democratic Party (SPD) Johannes Arlt said in an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio. He stressed that Germany has a limited number of these missiles.

Arlt stated that there had been ongoing discussions in the Bundestag in recent months about providing Taurus missiles to Ukraine; however, according to him, "not all [of these missiles] are ready [for operation]".

He said that in the event of transferring this weaponry to the needs of the Ukrainian army, they would "disappear" in Germany, and the country currently "cannot produce them again in the foreseeable future or replenish our stocks or supply more."

"Therefore, in the context of our alliance commitments to NATO, NATO planning goals, and the security measures we need to take, it would be better to refrain from supplying these Taurus cruise missiles for now," stated the deputy.

At the same time, the German deputy believes that providing missiles to Ukraine would offer the Ukrainian military "certain operational and tactical relief."

"Ukraine has proven that it is very creative and can deploy weapons very well, even if we didn't believe it before," he said.

Additionally, Arlt added that Germany, in assisting Ukraine, is "far ahead, unlike other countries such as France, which unfortunately make only very minimal contributions and certainly could do more".

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