Scholz rejects Ukraine’s request for long-range missiles and points out responsibility

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz this Monday rejected Ukraine’s request for the supply of long-range Taurus missiles, saying that he could not follow the example of France and the UK because he “would not be held accountable.”

“These are very long-range weapons and what is being done in terms of targeting and supporting attacks by Britain and France cannot be done in Germany,” Olaf Scholz told German news agency DPA.

It “would be irresponsible” for Germany’s head of government to be involved in the same way in managing those missiles, he added, warning of the risk that Germany would become “directly involved in some way” in the war.

“German soldiers should under no circumstances and in any place be associated with the goals achieved by these systems,” explained Olaf Scholz.

“What other countries with other traditions and other constitutional institutions do, we cannot do to the same extent,” he added.

German Taurus missiles have a range of more than 500 kilometers and could therefore, if Ukraine had access to them, hit targets far away on Russian territory.

For this reason, Berlin has refused to supply Kyiv with this type of missile over the past few months, fearing that the conflict would spread into Russian territory, potentially leading to escalation.

On the contrary, the Storm Shadow/Scalp long-range missile, developed in parallel by the British and French, has been supplied to Ukraine.

Since May last year, Kyiv has received these missiles with a range of 250 kilometers, supplied by France and the UK, as well as North American ATACMS missiles with a range of 165 kilometers.

“What Ukraine lacks is ammunition for all possible distances,” but they “will not decisively come from Germany,” Olaf Scholz also noted.

In recent days, Ukrainian authorities have lamented delays in the delivery of Western military aid, forcing the Kyiv army to withdraw from the eastern city of Avdiivka after four months of fighting.

Kyiv also announced this Monday that it had abandoned a small village near Avdeevka in the face of ongoing pressure from Russia.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said on Sunday that half of the Western weapons promised to Kyiv were delivered late.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky this Monday lamented that Ukraine has received only 30 percent of the millions of artillery shells promised by the European Union (EU) last year, after last week citing delays in arms deliveries that contributed to the failure of Kiev’s major counter-offensive in Syria. summer 2023.

Last year the EU pledged to send Ukraine one million artillery shells – to help the war effort against a Russian invasion – by the end of March 2024, before admitting it could not meet that target.