Kiev (dpa) – In its defensive struggle against Russia, Ukraine has asked the federal government to deliver the Taurus cruise missile. A corresponding request from Kiev had been received in recent days, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense in Berlin. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that he would continue to seek support from his Western partners.
“We will do everything possible and impossible to speed up the delivery of more air defense systems of higher quality to Ukraine,” the head of state said in his evening video address. These are “everyday problems in the truest sense of the word when working with partners.” His country is making faster progress in modernizing its defenses than it was six months ago.
The details of the possible delivery of the body of the march are not clear
The details of the request from Kiev to the Ministry of Defense in Berlin are still unclear. For example, the question of how many units of cruise missiles Ukraine is asking for. “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung” had previously reported on Taurus’ request from Ukraine. CDU defense expert Roderich Kiesewetter spoke out in favor of the deployment a few days ago and said: Missiles with a range of up to 500 kilometers allow an attacked nation to “fly Russia’s military infrastructure far behind the front lines”.
According to the Bundeswehr, the Taurus is one of the most modern missiles in the Luftwaffe. Fighter jet pilots do not need to enter enemy airspace to launch them. The guns therefore find their targets from great heights and distances and can destroy bunker systems, for example. “Thanks to four independent navigation systems, the air-to-ground missile finds its target very reliably, even if the enemy interferes,” the Bundeswehr said.
Ukraine is already using the British-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missile with a range of 550 kilometers in the war against Russia. Moscow has criticized that country could use it to attack targets within Russia itself. During his visit to Berlin in the middle of the month, President Zelenskyy said that Ukraine was not attacking the country, but needed weapons to defend and liberate the occupied territories. He also announced the return of Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula occupied by Russia since 2014.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz assured that German weapons supplied to Ukraine would not be used on Russian soil. “Russia attacked Ukraine, and that is why Ukraine can defend itself,” the SPD politician said on Friday during a visit to the Estonian capital, Tallinn. “And at the same time it is clear that the weapons we provide will only be used on Ukrainian territory.”
Scholz guarantees further support
During a visit to Estonia, the chancellor assured Ukraine of further assistance in the Baltic states – as long as it was needed. “To say it again clearly: We are ready to defend every square centimeter of NATO territory from attack,” Scholz said Friday after meeting with his counterparts Kaja Kallas (Estonia), Krisjanis Karins (Latvia) and Ingrida Simonyte (Lithuania) in Tallinn. “And I mean exactly what I say.”
Lithuania is hosting the upcoming NATO summit in July. “For peace in Europe, we need Ukraine in the EU and in NATO,” said hostess Kallas. The Ukrainian president announced in a video message that his country would use every opportunity to “fill relations with the western military alliance with real political content”. Ukraine pushes for NATO membership. Scholz, however, tempered expectations regarding the meeting: the summit would be “above all about organizing concrete support for Ukraine in this situation”.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galusin told the TASS news agency late on Saturday that one of the conditions for peace was that the neighboring country not become a member of NATO and the European Union.
Kiev: Russia again fires missiles at neighboring countries
Russia continued its relentless attacks on Friday. By evening, the Ukrainian General Staff counted at least 18 rocket attacks on inhabited areas around the Kiev and Dnipropetrovsk regions in the country’s southeast. In addition, Russia has used missiles from the S-300 and S-400 systems, which are actually intended for air defense, according to the army’s evening report. The military also recorded 60 airstrikes – so-called Kamikaze drones from Iran of the Shahed-136/131 type are said to have been used.
peace talks
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said during a telephone call with Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin that his country, like India, Indonesia and China, is ready for dialogue with both sides of the conflict. China’s special envoy Li Hui is in Moscow for talks on Friday. At the same time, the Wall Street Journal, citing an unnamed diplomat, reported that Li Hui should have asked Europe to “hand over” the occupied territories in eastern Ukraine to Russia.
Ukraine has repeatedly made it clear that it will not accept this. Zelenskyy’s adviser Mykhailo Podoljak warned on Twitter that such a scenario was tantamount to a Russian victory and at the same time a defeat for democracy. Prior to the possibility of negotiations, Moscow confirmed that Ukraine was leaving the occupied territories.
Former Federal Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer told Tagesspiegel: “This will be a painful truce that will not satisfy either side.” And added: “If in the end Putin receives confirmation towards Crimea and some corrections in the east and he has to present it as a success domestically, it will definitely not be easy. Otherwise, Ukraine will find it very difficult to make territorial compromises.”
That will be important on Saturday
It is eagerly awaited to see if there will be any new information about the situation in the embattled Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Russia announced last weekend that it would take over the completely destroyed city. Ukraine has not confirmed this. On Saturday evening, Ukraine’s Unian agency, citing the military in Kiev, reported that they “continue to inflict heavy casualties” on Russian troops there. Information from war zones cannot be independently verified.
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