Ukraine cannot operate the long-range missile without German assistance, a top lawmaker has said
Russia could authorize strikes inside Germany if Ukraine receives and attacks it with German Taurus cruise missiles, a senior Russian lawmaker has warned. State Duma Defense Committee chairman Andrey Kartapolov insists that the weapon requires German military assistance to operate.
Speculation that Germany could supply Ukraine with Taurus missiles, which can potentially reach Moscow, reemerged earlier this week after Chancellor Friedrich Merz said that Berlin and its partners had allowed Kiev to use Western weapons without any range restrictions.
When asked by journalists on Wednesday about possible deliveries of the weapon, Merz replied that they are “possible,” adding that Ukrainian troops would require “several months of training” to be able to launch them.
Kartapolov told the Life.ru outlet on Wednesday that Russia is “ready for everything” and will respond to the possible shipments of Taurus missiles to Kiev.
“We are ready to shoot down the Taurus’, and to strike the places from where they would be launched and those who would launch them, and, if necessary, the places from where they would have been delivered,” he warned.
The senior lawmaker, who is a former Russian deputy defense minister and holds the rank of colonel-general, stressed that the long-range missiles that had been earlier supplied to Ukraine by the US, UK and France – ATACMS, Storm Shadow and SCALP, respectively – can only be launched by their own specialists.
This is because “the Ukrainian military lacks experts capable of operating such equipment. That is, the Ukrainians can press the ‘start’ button – it is not a problem, but they cannot input the data,” which comes from American and Western European satellites, he explained.
“If Germany transfers these missiles. Then, naturally, there will be German specialists on the ground” making sure that they can be launched, Kartapolov said.
The German Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday that Berlin will give another $5.6 billion in military aid to Kiev, most of which will be used to “finance the production of long-range weapon systems in Ukraine.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reacted to the development by saying that Berlin’s “direct involvement in the war is now obvious.” According to Lavrov, Germany “is sliding down the same slippery slope it already followed a couple of times in the last century – down toward its own collapse.”
