Germany: Taurus Ukraine dispute rolls on after Russian leak

Tensions were again evident in Germany's ruling coalition on Monday as the long-running dispute on sending Taurus missiles to Ukraine was extended and amplified by Russia intercepting and releasing a conversation on the matter between senior German military officials. 

Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a Social Democrat (SPD) member, has ruled out the delivery at least for now, saying that the missiles' range is too long and that Germany could be directly or indirectly drawn into the war if it tries to provide them.

However, the opposition Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) support the idea, and are staging a series of votes in the Bundestag parliament recommending that they're sent. The next one is currently scheduled for Thursday.

For the most part, with some high-profile exceptions, coalition members have toed the line in these votes and the CDU motions have fallen hundreds of votes short of passage. 

But leading figures from both the SPD's junior coalition partners, the Greens and the FDP, are voicing support for the idea, or some alternative proposal involving an exchange with the UK, in public. 

Greens tout potential exchange deal with the UK

UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron, who visited Berlin last week, appeared to open an alternative door to sending Taurus missiles that had appeared closed. 

He suggested in a media interview with the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung that it might be possible for Germany to send Taurus missiles to UK, which in turn would enable the UK to send Ukraine more of its Storm Shadow missiles (which have a shorter range and cannot reach as far into Russia from Ukraine). 

Germany had floated this idea months ago as the Taurus dispute began and had initially encountered a lukewarm response from London. 

Cameron's opposite number in Germany, Annalena Baerbock of the Greens, said on public television over the weekend that she considered Cameron's proposal to be an "option," not quite breaking ranks with Scholz but at least raising fresh questions.

Her party ally Omid Nouripour similarly said on Monday in a TV interview that "this could be the option that lets us break the knot."

Germany recently convinced neutral Switzerland to embark on a similar exchange program with its mothballed German-built Leopard tanks — with the Swiss agreeing to return unused tanks to Germany, after Berlin assured Bern it would then send different vehicles from its stores on to Ukraine .

Parliamentary defense committee seeks answers on leak

The Bundestag parliament's defense committee was convening for a special sitting on Monday evening to discuss the Russian leak and what lessons should be drawn from it. 

Four senior military officers were discussing possible scenarios if Taurus missiles were sent to Ukraine in the roughly 40-minute recording. Investigations are ongoing, but it's believed that Russia was able to listen in on the conversation, probably after a participant logged in with inadequate security encryption.

The politicians plan to question Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, Bundeswehr Chief of Defense Carsten Breuer, and the president of German military intelligence, Martina Rosenberg. 

"We want to know how this could have happened," the committee's chairwoman, Free Democrat (FDP) member Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann said before the session. 

She said the incident demonstrated vulnerability and even implied a degree of good fortune that the discussion released had been confidential, "but not a classified matter." 

"Therefore, I think, the ministry should rapidly complete its investigation and report. These are extremely capable generals, they should keep working," Strack-Zimmermannn said. 

Strack-Zimmerman, who's become known as a leading advocate within the coalition government of sending more assistance to Ukraine over the past two years, was probably the highest profile rebel to break ranks with the government and support the CDU's proposal to send Taurus missiles to Ukraine in a previous vote. 

Opposition Christian Democrats want details on why Taurus not an option

CDU leader Friedrich Merz said on Monday that he would prefer a Taurus delivery to an exchange deal with the UK. 

"That may be the second-best solution to achieve the goal, but it's not particularly honorable," Merz said at a party event in Berlin. He said the proposal struck him to be "a little" similar to the German saying, "wash my coat, but don't get me wet."

The CDU, Strack-Zimmermann and others have questioned Scholz's claim that German troops would need to be involved in some capactiy to help Ukrainians operate Taurus missiles, with some saying the discussions in the Bundeswehr leak also cast doubt on that claim. 

Two senior politicians, Norbert Röttgen of the CDU and Anton Hofreiter from the Greens, teamed up in a guest commentary for Monday's edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper, accusing Scholz of "catastrophic defeatism" in his handling of the Taurus question and "dramatically poor communication" on the subject.

They argued that Scholz's portrayal of the situation had needlessly caused fear and schock among the general public. Claiming that delivering Taurus missiles to Ukraine would make Germany a party to the war was "factually and legally false," they asserted. They said the French and British deliveries of similar equipment demonstrated as much. 

However, the CDU's tactic of calling repeated votes on Taurus deliveries, knowing that only a major mutiny from coalition members would give it any chance of passing, has also drawn criticism in Berlin. 

"I also appeal to the [Christian Democratic] Union: you must take care not to let this really serious topic — this life and death issue for Ukrainians — turn into some kind of farce, with a new motion raised every week," Strack-Zimmermann said, having broken ranks and supported one of the earlier votes.

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msh/wmr (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

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