US Hopes Delivering ATACMS to Ukraine Will Push Germany to Send Taurus

The US hopes that its provision of long-range ATACMS to Ukraine will change Germany’s decision on not sending Taurus to Ukraine.

This was reported by AFP’s news agency on April 25, citing an anonymous US official. 

The US official said that eventually, it is Germany’s decision to make, adding: “But of course, with the US supply of ATACMS as well as the previous decisions of the U.K. and France to supply long-range missiles, we obviously have the hope that this will play a role."

The German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is standing firm on his refusal to send Taurus missiles to Ukraine, where he commented on the matter during a press conference on April 24 with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak: “My decision will not change”.

Preceding Scholz’s meeting with UK Prime Minister, the German opposition from the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) urged the Chancellor to change his mind and send the missiles to Ukraine.

“The Chancellor has always assured that he is oriented toward the United States,” said the FDP defense expert Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, “the USA will now deliver long-range ATACMS missiles to Ukraine. That is reason enough to act now on the Taurus issue.”

It was announced on Wednesday, April 24, that the US has secretly sent long-range ATACMS to Ukraine in the past few weeks, and Ukraine has now used them twice.