Germany Refuses to Supply Long-Range Precision Weapons to Ukraine

Long-range in military terms refers to cruise missile systems capable of striking targets at distances greater than 310 miles.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz gives a government declaration at the Bundestag in Berlin on June 6, 2024. Sean Gallup/Getty Images

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Sept. 14 that Germany will not supply long-range precision weapons to Ukraine, regardless of NATO allies’ decisions.

Scholz made the remark during a public event in Prenzlau, a city in Germany’s eastern state of Brandenburg, with the German leader citing a major escalation risk, according to the German Press Agency.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been requesting long-range weapons to target Russian logistics and military airfields behind the front lines, while top officials in Moscow have threatened to respond in a “brutal way” if Ukraine is allowed to fire Western-supplied long-range missiles into Russia.

“Long-range,” in military terms, refers to cruise missile systems capable of striking targets at distances greater than 310 miles.

Scholz said at the Sept. 14 event that the delivery of Taurus missiles, which have a range of about 310 miles and would allow Kyiv to strike targets in Moscow, would entail a “great risk of escalation.”

“I said ‘no’ to that,” Scholz said. “And of course that also applies to other weapons, if we had supplied them, which could reach this long distance.”

Scholz said that this would remain the case “even if other countries decide differently.”

Kyiv’s allies have been supplying weapons but with restrictions on how and when they can be used inside Russia, out of concern that such strikes could prompt a retaliation that could pull NATO countries into the conflict.

So far, the United States, Britain, and France have supplied cruise missiles to Ukraine with ranges of about 190 miles, while the longest-range weapon supplied by Germany is the Mars II rocket system, which can strike targets at a distance of roughly 50 miles.

There has been speculation that the United States is considering lifting its existing restrictions on weapons it has supplied to Ukraine.

Washington has clarified that, at least for now, it is not planning to loosen restrictions on Ukraine’s use of Western-supplied weapons.

“There is no change to our view on the provision of long range strike capabilities for Ukraine to use inside of Russia,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Sept. 13. “There’s just no change to our policy right now with respect to that capability, for all the reasons that we said we weren’t in support of it before.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters recently that Ukraine is unable to carry out strikes within Russian territory without Western support, as it relies on satellite intelligence and flight data for such operations. He claimed that the ongoing discussions among NATO countries go beyond Ukraine’s potential use of Western long-range weapons, extending to whether to get directly involved in the conflict.

“This would in a significant way change the very nature of the conflict,” Putin said of the potential decision of NATO countries to allow Kyiv to strike deep into Russia, according to the Kremlin’s official Telegram channel. “It would mean that NATO countries, the United States, European countries, are at war with Russia.”

Germany has been the second-largest contributor or military aid to Ukraine, after the United States. However, Berlin plans to halve its budget for that aid next year.