Germany may transfer Taurus missiles to Ukraine without announcing it - military expert Kyrychevskyi

He voiced such an opinion on the Espreso TV channel

"I think that our partners have made important decisions on the supply of the Ukrainian army a long time ago. It's just that we always expect something extraordinary from the Ramstein Group meeting. However, this meeting generally has a slightly specific format. For example, the public announcement of the supply of F-16 aircraft to Ukraine was made several meetings before the official announcement. Accordingly, at this stage, the Ramstein meeting may concern technical details," Kirichevskyi explained.

The expert noted that a certain range of weapons to be transferred to Ukraine is not disclosed.

"Germany may have a plan to supply Taurus missiles in the future. Since it is not enough to simply announce the transfer of these weapons, it is necessary to discuss and prepare for how these missiles will be launched. The Germans have already calculated that it will take more than 6 months to adapt Taurus to Su-24 aircraft, and almost 1.5 years to adapt it to F-16 aircraft. Therefore, it is obvious that these are the issues that will be discussed at the next Ramstein meeting. However, there will be no big announcements. Taurus missiles will appear in Ukraine in the same way as Storm Shadow - without announcement," he added.

Details about Taurus missiles

The Taurus KEPD 350/150 is a subsonic, long-range, air-to-surface tactical cruise missile for precision strikes and defeating highly protected and buried targets without the missile carrier entering enemy air defenses. The basic KEPD-350 model has a tandem concrete-piercing warhead weighing 481 kg and an explosive weight of about 50 kg. The weight of the vehicle is 1360 kg, while the empty weight is 1080 kg. The maximum flight range is at least 500 km.

In May, it was reported that Ukraine had asked Germany for long-range missiles.

In early August, it was reported that the Bundestag had reached a consensus on the transfer of Taurus missiles to Ukraine. At the same time, the German newspaper Spiegel reported that Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants to make technical modifications to the missiles to prevent Kyiv from striking Russian territory. Ukraine's Ambassador to Germany, Oleksii Makeiev, spoke out against limiting the range of long-range Taurus missiles.

At the end of August, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called for a swift decision to supply Ukraine with long-range missiles, as every day is important. And in mid-September, German MPs wrote a letter to Scholz urging him to make a decision in favor of Ukraine.

Scholz, on the other hand, has no plans to provide Ukraine with Taurus missiles, but may provide more ammunition for Patriot. 

On 19 October, German Ambassador to Ukraine Martin Jaeger said that Berlin had no plans to provide Ukraine with long-range Taurus missiles: the Ukrainian government had already been informed of this decision.

On Wednesday, 22 November, the 17th meeting of the Ramstein Contact Group on Ukraine's Defence began online. Defense ministers from about 50 countries will discuss, among other things, the expansion of Ukrainian air defense capabilities