Announcement from Brussels

EU wants more from Scholz: deliver Taurus to Kiev!

A fighter jet drops a Taurus missile. (symbolic image)

(Bild: AFP/South Korean Defence Ministry)

The President of the EU Parliament, Roberta Metsola, has made an announcement to the German head of government, Olaf Scholz. She wants him to approve the rapid delivery of German Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine. Karin Kneissl also intervenes in the debate.

When asked whether the EU states - like the USA and the UK - should also allow the use of long-range missiles against targets in Russia and whether Germany should also supply the Taurus weapons system, Metsola replied to the Funke Mediengruppe newspaper: "Yes, that is also the position of the EU Parliament."

There is "broad support for this demand. We will see whether there is a corresponding change of course after the parliamentary elections," said Metsola. Perhaps there could be such a change of course before then, as "there are also different positions on the Taurus delivery in the Berlin coalition". A direct attack on Olaf Scholz (SPD).

Scholz is campaigning with Ukraine
The German Chancellor is firmly opposed to a Taurus delivery. He is even campaigning on this issue: "I say that only the SPD can bring together prudence and clear support for Ukraine on this difficult issue," he recently declared. Scholz fears that this could drag Germany directly into the war between Russia and Ukraine. The FDP and the Greens, on the other hand, are in favor of supplying the weapons system to Ukraine.

Metsola's statements are a frontal attack on Scholz.

(Bild: AFP/Frederick FLORIN)

The discussion has flared up again in recent days after US President Joe Biden gave permission for the deployment of American ATACMS missiles with a range of up to 300 kilometers. The Taurus have an even greater range of 500 kilometers.

"It is not for Ms Metsola to interfere in German domestic politics and demand Taurus missiles that could also hit Moscow," criticized Fabio De Masi, who sits in the EU Parliament for the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW).

According to the latest ZDF Politbarometer, Germans are much more positive about arms deliveries to Ukraine than they were recently. 55 percent of respondents consider Biden's decision to provide Ukraine with the full range of US weapons systems to be the right one.

Metsola pointed out that the Ukrainian defenders were under time pressure. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi had rightly emphasized that Ukraine could not wait forever for powerful weapons assistance just because elections were always imminent in a Western country. It was alarming that Russia was now escalating the war and intensifying its missile attacks, which were already causing many civilian casualties, said the politician from the Christian Democrat EPP group.

Russia had fired a new medium-range ballistic missile at Ukraine in Dnipro on Thursday. The launch of the missile obviously also served as a signal of deterrence to the West.

Kneissl enthusiastic about new missile
Karin Kneissl, Foreign Minister for the FPÖ from the end of 2017 to mid-2019, had her say on the matter. The Italian-language website fattieavvenimenti.it, which is linked to the online channel Telegram, quoted the former politician, who now lives in Russia, as saying: "There is more to the Russian arsenal than many people think."

Russia had carried out a "combined attack against targets in Ukraine with a new medium-range hypersonic missile". This was Russia's response to "several recent provocations by NATO".

Neither the USA nor other countries in the world "currently have air defense systems capable of intercepting Russia's new hypersonic missiles", Kneissl said. On her own Telegram channel, the Putin friend added: "Until a few years ago, I counted on rational Western decision-makers, but unfortunately irrationality is on the rise among them. It seems that they don't understand what is happening and what could happen."