Human rights defender and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who advocates for Ukraine on the international stage, Oleksandra Matviichuk, has called on Germany to supply Ukraine with long-range Taurus missiles and to take a more decisive stance against Russia.
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Matviichuk noted that it takes Russian missiles less than a minute to reach, for example, a school in Kharkiv.
“The only way to prevent this is to stop these missiles while they are still at a military airfield in Russia. For that, we need Taurus,” she told the media group Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) in an interview.
As stated, the human rights defender urged Germany to more thoroughly analyse the mistakes the country had made in its relations with Russia, particularly highlighting cases of bribery of the German elite during the construction of the gas pipeline.
In her view, until 2022, Germany — like the civilised world in general — allowed Moscow to act with impunity for far too long.
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“Russian war crimes in Chechnya, Moldova, Georgia, Mali, Libya, Syria — no one was held accountable,” Matviichuk emphasised, calling on Berlin to act more decisively now by reassessing its overall policy toward Moscow.
“We are living in times that test all of us for genuine leadership, genuine courage, and genuine responsibility,” she stated.
Earlier, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz did not oppose supplying long-range missiles to Ukraine. However, after taking office, he has not made the corresponding decision.
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I’m beginning to think the Germans are afraid if it turns out the Taurus missile doesn’t actually work very well.
I think the only solution for Germany to disprove that suspicion is to begin supplying lots of Taurus missiles to Ukraine.
If they find out it works well, excellent.
If they find out it has weaknesses, also excellent. We now know about them and can fix them.
It’s a win/win situation.
It was meant as a joke. Field testing weapons is always good.
I don’t think it is about this, the Taurus not working would not be the first nor the last weapon that does not work on the field.
It is the EU is replaying the 1930s, only with a different villain
Germans could be afraid of old UN laws that allow Russia to strike if Germany becomes part of a war.
That is not an realistic worry, Denmark has allowed Ukrainian weapons production on Danish soil, and Russia has claimed that is a valid military target. That didn’t sop Denmark, why would Germany a much more powerful country be afraid of empty Russians threats when Denmark is not?
For Denmark, Nato article 5 would be triggered.
For Germany, it could be legal so Germany would have to fight alone.
Of course, Russia already started the war, but I don’t know the details of international law to decide what is important.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enemy_state_clauses
Nope I’m pretty sure NATO article 5 would still work. Delivering weapons to an ally is not the same as attacking the enemy that ally is attacking. Otherwise article 5 would be void for all the countries that have supplied weapons to Ukraine.
Ukraine will probably never get Taurus. Its a too important part of Germans contribution to NATO defense and retaliation plans. Just look who is always asking for supplying Taurus to Ukraine. Its not officials from NATO members but only activists or opposition politicians without any access to such information.
Opposition parties have access to such information via the defense council of the Bundestag or at least some members of the opposition have. It has just been the CDU that demanded this, because they don’t give a rat’s ass about honesty or truth
the defense council members became also quiet on that matter after a general informed them about Taurus in detail.
Taurus missiles are the only long range strategic weapon Germany has.
Nah, they have AFD which is also long range strategic weapon. But it’s not germany’s weapon.
And?
Are you saying they only have 1 of them?
Not literally, but not far off either probably.
Then why didn’t they begin to scale up production 3 years and 9 months ago?
There is no excuse for Germany, other countries are helping Ukraine with F-16 fighter Jets, and Germany can’t supply missiles they can make themselves!!
I wonder what kind of piss poor excuse they have for that. 🙁
Well despite that, Germany is helping in many other ways, which is good, but it would be nice if they would take that extra step.
I agree that it’s a failure. Germany was very slow to ramp up military aid to Ukraine. At the beginning it was just helmets and the delivery of tanks could have happened much earlier. Over time though, Germany has delivered a lot of equipment directly, enabled transfers through Ringtausch, and financed a lot of purchases.
I also think Germany should have provided Ukraine with Tornado Jets and Taurus missiles.
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