"Only German military should choose the targets": Scholz comes up with a new excuse not to hand over Taurus missiles to Ukraine

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has voiced a new reason why he cannot transfer long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine. He said that only German military personnel should select targets for these missiles and program them.

And it is impossible to send our soldiers to Ukraine to perform these functions because of the risk of "escalation." Scholz said this during a meeting with citizens on Friday, May 24, in Berlin, NTV reports.

"It is problematic to transfer a weapon that can fly 500 kilometers and is so accurate. From the point of view of the country that supplies it, it would be justified to deliver it only if we define and set the targets ourselves," he said.

Scholz added that, according to him, it is impossible to send German troops to Ukraine as the country does not want to become a participant in Russia's war against Ukraine.

The chancellor emphasized that although Germany will help Ukraine defend itself against Russia's invasion, it also "must prevent escalation that will turn into a war between Russia and NATO."

"The responsibility looks like this: we support Ukraine in its defense struggle, but we will not allow the war to escalate into a war between Russia and NATO," Scholz said.

As a reminder, the US announcement of the transfer of ATACMS long-range missiles to Ukraine has revived discussions in the German Bundestag about the transfer of its long-range Taurus missiles to Kyiv. The German opposition called on Scholz to finally make this decision.

However, at a press conference on April 24, the German chancellor reiterated that he was not going to change his decision on Taurus. He emphasized that Berlin would continue to support Ukraine so that it could resist Russian aggression.

Scholz explained that Germany's decision not to supply Ukraine with Taurus is related to the desire to prevent a direct clash between Russia and NATO. He said that when it comes to security in Europe, Berlin should be responsible in matters of war and peace.

As reported, the chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Christoph Heusgen, believes that training of the Armed Forces to operate the Taurus could have been started long ago to put it into operation without the need to involve Bundeswehr soldiers.

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