Olaf Scholz is still refusing to send Germany’s long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine, despite the US allowing Kyiv limited use of its Atacms missiles for strikes in Russia.
The German chancellor told a press conference at the G20 summit in Brazil on Monday that it was only possible for Ukraine to use Taurus missiles if “we take joint responsibility for target control”.
“That is something that I cannot be responsible for, and don’t want to be responsible for,” Mr Scholz explained.
Mr Scholz has strongly opposed sending Germany’s Taurus missiles to Ukraine for fear of escalation if Ukraine hits politically sensitive targets with German-made weapons.
He has also repeatedly said the missiles could only be used with German help.
“The chancellor’s decision is unchanged,” a government spokesman told reporters in Berlin on Monday.
Robert Habeck, Germany’s economic minister and the Green candidate for chancellor, said on Sunday that he would send Tauruses to Ukraine if he prevails in the country’s snap elections in February.
Taurus missiles have a longer range (311 miles) than the US’s Atacms (190 miles) or the UK’s Storm Shadows (155miles).
Ukraine on Saturday accused Mr Scholz of opening a “Pandora’s box” for calling Vladimir Putin for the fist time in two years.
Former British defence secretary Ben Wallace said that Putin has the German chancellor “exactly where he wants him” and “is laughing at him”.
Mr Scholz’s call was “so ineffective that within a few hours Putin launched a massive illegal attack on Ukrainian energy infrastructure,” Mr Wallace wrote on X, adding that “Scholz is probably best suited to chairing a sub committee of a local council”.
