Taurus cruise missiles: Weapons Germany could be sending Ukraine to strike deep into Russia

Independent

4 days ago

Germany could send its long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine this year, chancellor Friedrich Merz has said, a move which would help Kyiv strike deep into Russian territory.
Berlin pledged to ramp up its military support for Ukraine during a meeting between Mr Merz and Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday, in which the former promised new military aid worth €5 billion (£4.2 billion).
Mr Merz did not mention Taurus missiles as he announced an increase in support for Kyiv - but he later addressed the issue when speaking on German TV.
"Of course, it is within the realms of possibility,' the new chancellor told TV channel ZDF when asked if Germany would supply the weapons, adding that it would require several months of training for Ukrainian troops.
If Taurus missiles were sent, it would mark a major change in policy for Germany, which under former chancellor Olaf Scholz had been adamant it would not send the weaponry to Ukraine.
Military support for Kyiv is being improved in the short term, the German chancellor added, given Taurus missiles would not be ready for immediate use.
Germany has pledged to bankroll Ukraine making its own long-range missile systems. Since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, range and target limits on weapons sent to Kyiv have been debated intensely between - and within - Ukraine's closest allies, amid fears of Russian retaliation.
'Ukraine will be able to fully defend itself, including against military targets outside its own territory,' Mr Merz said during a joint news conference.
In response, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the news as a 'very dangerous trend, an irresponsible position that Germany is taking'.
What are Taurus missiles and what can they do?
Equipped with stealth technology that makes them less visible to detection, the missiles have a range of up to 310 miles, which would help Ukraine to put pressure on Russia in the Black Sea and elsewhere.
The German and Swedish-made missiles would be able to reach targets deep in Russia from Ukrainian soil. Taurus is shorthand for Target Adaptive Unitary and dispenser Robotic Ubiquity System.
Ukraine has been asking Germany for the missiles to complement the long-range Storm Shadow missiles sent by Britain and France's nearly identical Scalp cruise missiles. The German missiles have a longer range.
The UK announced in the spring of 2023 that it was sending Storm Shadows, which have a range of more than155 miles and give Ukraine capacity to strike well behind the front lines, including in Russia-occupied Crimea. In July 2024, Sir Keir Starmer announced the UK would allow Ukraine to fire the missiles into Russia - which it had previously not been permitted to do. Ukraine was reported to have used the missile for the first time in November.
France followed Britain by sending its Scalp missiles, giving assurances that they would not be capable of hitting Russian soil.
What is Germany's position?
Germany is the second-biggest supplier of military aid to Ukraine after the United States and is further stepping up support this year. But former chancellor Olaf Scholz had previously refused to send the Taurus missiles, saying it would pose a risk of his country becoming directly involved in the war.
'German soldiers must at no point and in no place be linked to targets this system reaches,' he said.
At the time, some members of the conservative opposition, and even some in his socially liberal three-party coalition, wanted to send the missiles to Ukraine. But in March 2024, a survey found that 61 per cent of Germans disapproved of Taurus deliveries.
As well as concerns regarding Russian retaliation, for military strategists, there are other concerns.
Gustav Gressel, a senior policy fellow with the European Council on Foreign Relations, wrote in a note last year that while the UK and France were already developing successors to their Storm Shadows and Scalps, Germany did not have yet have a successor to the Taurus.
Germans fear that their stocks of Taurus missiles could be depleted, he argued, and that 'Russians would see the missile in operation in Ukraine and gain insights into the missile's countermeasures and stealth characteristics.'
But Friedrich Merz, who has served as chancellor since early May 2025, has been more willing to ramp up military aid for Ukraine than his predecessor - and may be set to send Taurus missiles eastwards.
The Taurus wiretapping case
On 1 March 2024, Vladimir Putin's state media leaked an audio recording of German military officers discussing the hypothetical use of Taurus long-range missiles in Ukraine.
The 38-minute recording was published by Margarita Simonyan, chief editor of Russian state-funded television channel RT, on social media, the same day that Alexei Navalny was laid to rest in Moscow after his unexplained death two weeks earlier in an Arctic penal colony. It surfaced just weeks before Russia's presidential election.
In the audio, the head of Germany's air force, Ingo Gerhartz, can be heard discussing deployment scenarios for Taurus missiles in Ukraine with three colleagues ahead of a meeting with defence minister Boris Pistorius.
The conversation was never meant to be public, and the leak embarrassed Germany and raised concerns about security. Furious with Germany, Moscow levelled threats in response.
'If nothing is done, and the German people do not stop this, then there will be dire consequences first and foremost for Germany itself,' Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said at the time.
In her retort, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said: 'If Russia had not brutally attacked this country, Ukraine would not have to defend itself.'