Merz expressed his readiness to provide Taurus to Ukraine and announced a possible target

Future German Chancellor Friedrich Merz reiterated that he is ready to approve the transfer of Taurus long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine as part of defense support. This is reported by RBC-Ukraine with reference to the Financial Times.

Friedrich Mertz

The German politician, who is set to take office as chancellor next month, has stressed the need to put Ukraine "on the front foot" and force Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to make concessions and end the war.

Merz strongly condemned the Russian missile strike on the city of Sumy on April 13, Palm Sunday. He called the shelling a “serious war crime,” adding that Ukraine needs help to “move forward” in the conflict.

When asked whether he would fulfill the previous call to Germany to transfer Taurus missiles to Ukraine, which official Kyiv had long asked Berlin for, Merz noted that he was ready to do so if it was done in coordination with European allies.

"Our European partners are already supplying cruise missiles. The British are doing it, the French are doing it, and the Americans are doing it anyway," he told public broadcaster ARD on Sunday evening.

Merz also added that this must be "jointly agreed upon, and if agreed upon, Germany must participate."

Commenting on US President Donald Trump's efforts to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, the future German Chancellor warned that Putin would not "respond positively to weakness and peace proposals."

Merz noted that the strike on Sumy, which killed at least 34 civilians and injured 117, is “what Putin does to those who tell him about a ceasefire.”

The German politician also added that "at some point (Putin) must recognize the hopelessness of this war, which means we must help Ukraine."

On Sunday, Merz not only declared his readiness to supply Taurus missiles to Ukraine, but also suggested that they could be used to strike targets such as the illegally built "Crimean Bridge" by Russian invaders, which is considered a "symbol of Putin's occupation" of the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014.

Questions about Taurus for Ukraine

It is worth noting that the current German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, who is leaving his post, has repeatedly rejected requests from Kyiv and its allies to supply the Defense Forces with Taurus missiles, which have an intelligent warhead system that can cause enormous damage to structures such as bridges and bunkers.

The Taurus system, a joint venture between European missile maker MBDA and Swedish company Saab, has a range of more than 500 km, which is greater than the Storm Shadows system supplied by the British and French. It is also greater than the Army Tactical Missile System provided to Ukraine by the United States. This would theoretically allow the Ukrainian Armed Forces to strike deep behind the front lines.

As Scholz previously stated, the transfer of Taurus missiles to Ukraine would carry a "great risk of escalation" of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Merz, the leader of the center-right Christian Democrats, which came in first place in the federal elections in February, criticized this position. He called on Scholz to issue an ultimatum to Putin in October 2024, promising to deliver such missiles within 24 hours if he did not stop attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.

It was also reported that earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also expressed hope that Ukraine would receive long-range Taurus missiles from Germany after the new Chancellor Friedrich Merz comes to power.

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