Friedrich Merz should not supply Taurus missiles to Kiev, the leader of the Social Democrats said
Classified briefings would sway Germany’s chancellor-designate Friedrich Merz from delivering Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine, Matthias Miersch, the leader of the Social Democrats (SPD), has said.
Berlin ruled out sending the long-range weapon system, which has a range of 500 kilometers, while the SPD was part of the ruling coalition. The party suffered a historic defeat to Friedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the February election. The conservatives and Social Democrats are currently in talks to form a new government.
Speaking to the news channel n-tv on Wednesday, Miersch criticized Merz’s readiness to deliver the Taurus and risk an open confrontation with Russia.
“We have always been against it,” Miersch said. “I assume that Friedrich Merz, once fully informed by [intelligence] agencies, will reassess the issue clearly. We will then make the decision together,” he added.
“I assume that we do not want to contribute to an escalation or become a party to the war – the very reason we chose not to deliver the Taurus [to Ukraine]. And I assume it will remain that way,” Miersch said.
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, an SPD member, said earlier that there were “many good arguments” against sending the missiles, and some of them cannot be discussed in public.
Speaking to ARD on Sunday, Merz confirmed that he would like to supply the Taurus to Kiev. “Yes, that was exactly what I meant – not that we would intervene in the war ourselves, but that we would be equipping the Ukrainian army with such a weapon.” He suggested that Kiev could use the missile to strike the long bridge connecting Crimea with mainland Russia. Roderich Kiesewetter, the CDU’s defense spokesman, argued that the Taurus would help Ukraine “destroy Russian supply lines and command bunkers.”
The missile debate is unfolding as US President Donald Trump works to broker a Russian-Ukrainian ceasefire through shuttle diplomacy.
Moscow has warned that no amount of Western arms deliveries would deter its troops but would increase the likelihood of a larger conflict. The Taurus would “not bring any changes to the battlefield,” Russia’s ambassador to Germany, Sergey Nechayev, said on Wednesday.
The deliveries would, however, make Germany directly involved in the conflict, as “Ukrainian soldiers … cannot operate the long-range weapon” without Berlin’s help, Nechayev said.
