London has urged Berlin to supply Ukraine with long-range Taurus missiles, despite an earlier leaked conversation between Bundeswehr officers and Germany’s reluctance. According to The Guardian, Britain recalled that it was the first to deliver long-range missiles to Kiev and called on its allies to follow suit. However, according to experts, these calls are unlikely to influence a “resisting” Berlin, which fears a direct confrontation with Moscow.
Britain has urged a “resisting” Berlin to supply Kiev with Taurus missiles despite the recent “shameful leak” of a top-secret conversation involving Bundeswehr officers, The Guardian reports. Instead of publicly criticising Germany for the leak, London has been even tougher in pushing for the delivery of the Taurus, which has a range twice that of the Anglo-French weapons system already handed to Kiev.
“The UK was the first country to provide Ukraine with long-range precision-guided missiles and we urge our allies to do the same,” a British spokesman said. As the publication notes, London has previously acknowledged the presence of “a small number of British military personnel in Ukraine”.
Nevertheless, according to military expert Carlo Masala of the Bundeswehr University of Munich, such a “hysterical public reaction” to the possibility of Germany’s direct participation in the war against Russia, which followed the leak, will now definitely prevent the delivery of missiles. “Olaf Scholz will now definitely not want to supply Taurus to Ukraine, which is exactly what the Russians wanted to prevent once and for all,” The Guardian quoted him as saying.