“Arguments not valid”
Despite the Chancellor’s no: Debate about Taurus deliveries to Ukraine continues
Tornado fighter jet with a Taurus cruise missile
© Andrea Bienert
Olaf Scholz has made his decision: He does not want to deliver German Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine. The head of the security conference thinks this is a mistake – and is not alone.
Despite the clear no from Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), the head of the Munich Security Conference, Christoph Heusgen, continues to hope for a German delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to the Ukraine. “I am not giving up hope that this “no” is not final, especially since the arguments presented are not valid: South Korea has the Taurus in use without Bundeswehr soldiers and the Ukrainians can also handle modern weapons,” Heusgen told the editorial network Germany.
The Ukrainians have so far strictly adhered to attacking Russian positions only on Ukrainian territory. They knew that a violation would cause serious damage, “namely the loss of trust of their second most important partner after the USA, Germany.”
After Taurus rejection: A clear no to ground troops too
Scholz justified his refusal with the risk of Germany becoming involved in the war. “German soldiers must not be linked to the goals that this system achieves at any point or place. Not even in Germany,” he said on Monday at the dpa editor-in-chief conference.
Scholz once again made his stance on sending ground troops to Ukraine clear in a video message on Wednesday evening. He promised the Bundeswehr and the German population that his rejection of ground troops was an immovable red line. “To put it bluntly: As German Chancellor, I will not send any soldiers from our Bundeswehr to Ukraine.” That applies. “Our soldiers can rely on that. And you can rely on that.”
On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron did not rule out the use of ground troops after a meeting of around 20 heads of state and government in Paris. Scholz had immediately rejected this on Tuesday. It was also agreed for the future “that there will be no ground troops, no soldiers on Ukrainian soil that will be sent there by European states or NATO states.”
The SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich praised the Chancellor’s clear stance on both the Taurus decision and his reaction to Macron’s initiative. “It’s good that all other heads of state and government rejected the French president’s suggestion to consider possibly intervening in the war in Ukraine with ground troops,” said Mützenich in a video that the SPD parliamentary group broadcast on Wednesday evening on platform X, formerly Twitter. “The Chancellor is not alone with his stance. But the fact that Olaf Scholz has taken such a clear stand against it is good and has the support of the Social Democratic parliamentary group.”
Strack-Zimmermann: The future of Moldova depends on Ukraine
With regard to the situation in the breakaway region of Transnistria in the Republic of Moldova, the chairwoman of the Defense Committee in the Bundestag, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, warned that the future of this country also depends on Western support for Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin is now provoking in every geographical corner, she told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “It is all the more important that we not only take a position, especially in Ukraine, but also follow words with actions and really do everything we can to ensure that Ukraine wins the war.”
The CDU foreign politician Norbert Röttgen also warned against an expansion of the war in Ukraine. “The weaker the West appears in its support for Ukraine, the more secure Putin feels in his imperialist aspirations,” he told the “Rheinische Post”.
According to media reports, the pro-Russian rulers of the breakaway region of Transnistria in the Republic of Moldova have asked Russia for “protection”. A congress of the internationally unrecognized separatist region that borders Ukraine voted on Wednesday for a resolution to this effect, which Moldovan media quoted. Transnistria therefore wants to turn to the Russian Federation Council and the State Duma “with a request to implement measures to protect Transnistria in view of the increasing pressure from Moldova.” What exactly the pro-Russian rulers expect from Russia was not initially clear.