The government of USA hopes that its recent decision to send long-range missiles to Ukraine will encourage Germany to do the same, something Berlin has so far ruled out, a US official said Thursday.
The day before Wednesday, Washington confirmed that it had sent long-range ATACMS missiles to Kiev earlier “this month”, giving the Ukrainian armed forces the ability to strike targets up to 300 kilometers away.
Before the US, France and Britain had already supplied Kiev’s forces with long-range missiles – respectively SCALP and Storm Shadow – capable of hitting targets at a distance of about 250 kilometers.
“On the question of Taurus… that decision is left to Germany“, a senior US Defense Department official said yesterday, on condition of anonymity, when asked about the possibility of Berlin sending such German-made missiles to Kiev.
“But certainly the procurement of ATACMS by the US and the earlier decisions of the UK and France to provide (Ukraine) with long-range missiles we hope will play a role,” he added.
Kiev has been asking Germany for months to supply the Ukrainian military with Taurus cruise missiles, which have an effective range of up to 500 kilometers.
Berlin, however, has so far refused to proceed with sending missiles of this type, fearing an escalation of the war.
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