The refusal of the German Chancellor to provide Ukraine with German cruise missiles caused a violent reaction in Germany. Many media commentators and politicians have harshly criticized this decision.
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Olaf Scholz has not yet decided to provide Ukraine with German Taurus long-range cruise missiles, although Great Britain and France are already supplying the Ukrainian army with similar Storm Shadow/Scalp missiles.
This decision caused a very wide resonance among the German media, publishing both comments and review articles with the reactions of German politicians from different parties.
Scholz hesitates. It’s deja vu. He also waited a long time regarding the delivery of battle tanks, and then agreed. He spoke of a “red line,” meaning the provision of Western warplanes, and then saw other NATO partners give their consent, according to German public radio station Deutschlandfunk.
According to the radio station, the Chancellor was unable to convincingly explain his abstinence, “there remains a suspicion that he does not trust the Ukrainian president, who again and again assures that Kiev does not intend to use these cruise missiles to attack Russian territory.”
In addition, Deutschlandfunk believes that Social Democrat Scholz “apparently also fears the shelling of the Crimean Bridge as an important way to provide for the Russians. He believes that Putin may regard this as German participation in the war. The Chancellor hopes that the Germans will still thank him for this. In addition, he must reckon with numerous skeptics in his own party.”
Scholz is also criticized by the conservative newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. She writes that the Taurus missile debate suffers from a lack of transparency.
Based on information leaked from the office of the Federal Chancellor, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung concludes that Scholz is delaying for two reasons:
Because of the ability of these cruise missiles to strike targets located deep in Russian territory (as well as the Kerch Bridge in Crimea), and because Ukraine would probably have to provide geodata or maintenance personnel.” According to the publication, “these are two serious The possibility that Germany might be seen as a participant in the war is a legitimate reason to refuse (temporarily?) the supply of a certain weapons system.
The usually well-informed tabloid Bild quoted sources as saying that Scholz told a closed meeting of the Bundestag foreign policy committee that Britain and France “can do what we have no right to do.”
The publication explains that Scholz means that both countries directly provide their own geodata to guide missiles to the target, and Great Britain also, with the help of its personnel, directly on the spot.
According to Bild, those around the chancellor fear that the Crimean Bridge will be destroyed precisely by German weapons.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.