Friedrich Merz should not give Kiev long-range weapons, the leader of the Social Democrats has warned
Incoming German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will be swayed from delivering Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine once he begins to receive classified intelligence briefings on the matter, Matthias Miersch, the leader of the Social Democrats (SPD), has said.
Berlin ruled out giving Ukraine the long-range weapon system, which has a range of 500km, while the SPD led the last German government.
Following an historic election defeat in February which saw the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) surge, Merz’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and Miersch’s SPD began talks to form a government.
Speaking to the n-tv news channel on Wednesday, Miersch criticized Merz’s readiness to deliver the Taurus and risk open confrontation with Russia.
“We have always been against it,” Miersch said. “I assume that Friedrich Merz, once fully informed by [intelligence] agencies, will reassess the issue clearly. We will then make the decision together,” he added.
“I assume that we do not want to contribute to an escalation or become a party to the war – the very reason we chose not to deliver the Taurus [to Ukraine]. And I assume it will remain that way,” Miersch said.
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, an SPD member, earlier said there are “many good arguments” against sending the missiles, and some of them cannot be discussed in public.
Speaking to ARD on Sunday, Merz confirmed that he would like to supply Taurus missiles to Kiev. “Yes, that was exactly what I meant – not that we would intervene in the war ourselves, but that we would be equipping the Ukrainian army with such a weapon.”
He suggested that Kiev could use it to strike the bridge connecting Crimea with mainland Russia. Roderich Kiesewetter, the CDU’s defense spokesman, argued that the Taurus would help Ukraine “destroy Russian supply lines and command bunkers.”
The missile debate is unfolding as US President Donald Trump works to broker a Russian-Ukrainian ceasefire through shuttle diplomacy.
Moscow has warned that no amount of Western arms deliveries will prevent it from achieving its goals in the conflict. The Taurus will “not bring any changes to the battlefield,” Russia’s ambassador to Germany, Sergey Nechayev, said on Wednesday.
They would, however, make Germany directly involved in the conflict, as “Ukrainian soldiers… cannot operate the long-range weapon” without Berlin’s help, Nechayev said.
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