The Power Within: The Kyiv Independent’s first-ever magazine. Be among the first to get it.

pre-order now
Skip to content
Edit post

Media: Ukraine asks Germany for Taurus cruise missiles

by Anastasiya Gordiychuk May 27, 2023 4:15 AM 2 min read
A visitor walks past a guide missile ground target KEPD 350 manufactured by the Swedish-German company Taurus at the International Defence and Security fair of Madrid, on May 17, 2023. (Photo by THOMAS COEX/AFP via Getty Images)
This audio is created with AI assistance

A German Defense Ministry spokesperson confirmed that Ukraine has submitted a request asking Germany to supply long-range Taurus cruise missiles, Spiegel reported.

According to Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, President Volodymyr Zelensky had previously discussed this matter with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during his visit to Berlin in May.

On May 23, German MP of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Roderich Kiesewetter urged the government to provide Ukraine with long-range Taurus cruise missiles.

“Ukraine’s partners must now go ‘all-in’ and provide Ukraine with everything that Ukraine can use in combined arms combat and that is permissible under international law,” he said in an interview with RND.

“Taurus cruise missiles with a range of up to 400 to 500 kilometers would be a very helpful contribution from Germany,” he added. “There must be no more red lines here.”

According to Kiesewetter, out of 600 missiles purchased 10 years ago, Germany currently has around 150 operational ones.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius reacted cautiously to the proposal about delivering Taurus missiles to Ukraine but said he “believed that we should support Ukraine with all the systems permissible under international law that it takes to win this war and that we are able to provide.”

Earlier in May, the U.K. transferred Storm Shadow long-range missiles to Ukraine, becoming the first nation to supply Kyiv with weapons capable of reaching targets deep behind the front lines.

Ukraine promised the U.K. government to use them to strike targets in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine.

CNN: Ukraine has used Storm Shadow missiles to strike Russian targets
Ukrainian forces have already started using U.K.-provided Storm Shadow long-range missiles to hit Russian targets, CNN reported on May 16, citing three Western officials.

News Feed

6:54 PM

Mariupol defender appointed commander of Azov Brigade amid military reform.

Following the start of Russia's full-scale war in 2022, Hrishenkov defended Mariupol, where he was injured. After 86 days of defending the encircled city under heavy Russian bombardment, he and about 2,500 other fighters left the Azovstal steel plant after Ukrainian commanders ordered the defending garrison to lay down their arms.
6:21 PM

4 days of hunting Russian drones.

The Kyiv Independent contributor Ignatius Ivlev-Yorke spent four days following an air defense unit guarding the skies over a region in eastern Ukraine, seeing how they live, work, and save civilians from the dozens of Russian drones flying toward Ukrainian cities each night.
MORE NEWS

Editors' Picks

Enter your email to subscribe
Please, enter correct email address
Subscribe
* indicates required
* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required
* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required

Subscribe

* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required
Explaining Ukraine with Kate Tsurkan
* indicates required
Successfuly subscribed
Thank you for signing up for this newsletter. We’ve sent you a confirmation email.