Kremlin warns Germany sending Taurus missiles to Ukraine risks 'escalation'

The Kremlin has warned Germany against giving Kiev Taurus missiles, saying the move risks an "escalation" of the Ukraine war.

Germany's incoming chancellor Friedrich Merz has said Berlin is willing to send Taurus long-range missiles to Ukraine.

In response, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitri Peskov said on Monday that supplying German Taurus missiles to Ukraine risked escalating the three-year conflict that US President Donald Trump has vowed to end.

“He is agitating on the side of toughening his position and in favor of various steps that can and will, inevitably lead to a further escalation of the Ukraine situation,” Peskov said.

“Unfortunately, European capitals are really not inclined to look for ways of reaching peace talks, they are rather inclined to further provoke the continuation of the war.” 

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Germany, as Europe’s biggest supplier of arms and munitions to Ukraine, ranks second after the US.

Berlin has already provided Kiev with tens of billions of euros' worth of military equipment, with billions more earmarked over the next few years.

Merz, who is set to take office next month, proposed sending Taurus missiles to Ukraine so they can strike vast amounts of Russian military sites in Crimea and hit the Kerch Bridge.

“Our European partners are already supplying cruise missiles,” Merz said in an interview with ARD television network. “The British are doing it, the French are doing it, and the Americans are doing it.”

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Merz said he would be willing to do so if done in co-ordination with Germany's allies. “This must be jointly agreed. And if it’s agreed, then Germany should take part.”

He said Kiev needed to be supplied with more weapons and munitions now in order to “shape events” and to “get ahead of the situation.”

“If things continue as they are, if, for example, the most important land connection between Russia and Crimea is destroyed, or if something happens on Crimea itself, where most of the Russian military logistics are located, then that would be an opportunity to bring this country strategically back into the picture finally.”

In a reference to Trump’s efforts to end the war, Merz claimed that Putin would not “respond positively to weakness and peace offers.”

“At some point, [Putin] must recognize the hopelessness of this war, which means we have to help Ukraine.”

Despite Kiev's ceaseless pleas to Berlin for more and more weaponry, the outgoing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz refused to give any Taurus missiles to Ukraine. Scholz was against sending Kiev "destructive weapons" capable of striking targets deep inside of Russia.

Taurus air-launched missiles, which have an intelligent warhead system that can inflict huge damage to structures such as bridges and bunkers, can reach targets in distances of up to 500 kilometers.

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