Former UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has urged Germany to urgently supply Taurus missiles to Ukraine, stressing their crucial role in helping the country defend itself against Russia’s continued aggression.
In a tweet posted on Christmas Day, Wallace said, “Putin laughs at us all and murders Ukrainian citizens on Christmas day. There has to be a response. – Taurus now from Germany please! Not to do so is to betray all our values.” His message underscored the urgency with which Ukraine needs more advanced weaponry to counter Russia’s advances and protect civilian lives.
Putin laughs at as all and murders Ukrainian citizens on Christmas day. There has to be a response. – Taurus now from Germany please! Not to do so is to betray all our values @faznet @CDU_CSU_EP @W_Schmidt_
— Rt. Hon Ben Wallace (@BenWallace70) December 25, 2024
Wallace, who served as the UK’s Defence Secretary from 2019 to 2023, played a huge role in securing military aid for Ukraine. During his tenure, Wallace oversaw the provision of critical military support, including anti-tank missiles, air defence systems, and artillery. His efforts were crucial in building international coalitions and ensuring Ukraine had the resources necessary to defend itself against Russian aggression.
What is the Taurus missile?
The Taurus KEPD 350 is a long-range, air-launched cruise missile capable of striking targets at a distance of up to 500 kilometres. Designed for precision strikes, it is equipped with advanced avionics, stealth capabilities, and high-precision targeting. Its ability to engage deep behind enemy lines makes it an ideal weapon for Ukraine as it continues to defend its territory against Russian forces. The Taurus missile is considered one of the most advanced weapons in its class.
Despite Ukraine’s repeated requests, Germany has been reluctant to approve the export of Taurus missiles, citing concerns about escalating tensions with Russia. This hesitation has drawn criticism from Ukrainian officials and Western allies who argue that providing such weapons would significantly enhance Ukraine’s ability to defend itself and shift the momentum in the conflict.
In late 2024, Germany indicated plans to acquire additional Taurus missiles, but the decision on whether to send them to Ukraine remains pending. This ongoing hesitation is a critical issue as Ukraine faces significant pressure to acquire advanced strike capabilities.
The Taurus missile would greatly enhance Ukraine’s ability to strike Russian military infrastructure deep behind the front lines. With its extended range, Ukraine would be able to target critical Russian positions without putting its aircraft at risk in highly contested areas.
It is pretty ridiculous that Taurus hasn’t been sent to UKR.
As they have Storm Shadow (don’t want to abbreviate as I don’t want to put an awful WW2 connotation onto this) and various flavours of US medium/long range I don’t really understate German hesitancy.
Even if the donated Taurus had its range limited, as Storm Shadow can, it would still increase the number of medium range accurate war shots. If only just to take down a load of rail bridges and rail heads as the Russians depend on them.
Sadly, as with everything in this blasted war, if they had been given all of this in the first six months before the Russians dispersed then the combination of Taurus, Storm Shadow and the US systems would have totally mashed up the Russian systems.
I wonder if it’s possible for Germany to ‘donate ‘ or sell Taurus to the UK or France thereby allowing more Storm Shadow or Scalp to be donated to Ukraine on a one to one basis?
That was one of Ben Wallace’s ideas.
UK buys Taurus so we can release more Storm Shadow.
Yes, it was looked at in some detail. I think if Boris has been around it would have happened. Rishi wasn’t, relatively, that invested in defence
Germans didn’t like it as they saw it as making it impossible for them to say no to direct Taurus sales to UKR.
The cynic in me says the last thing we wanted was to give Russia a chance to lose before it burnt through its legendary tank reserves
It’s purposeful on the part of Germany, the German government does not want Ukraine to loss, but it also does not want it to win.
“To this day, Scholz, who belongs to Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), has refused to say he wants Ukraine to win the war, saying only that “Russia must not win and Ukraine must not lose.”
Essentially Germany along with many NATO nations are feeding just enough to Ukraine so it does not collapse, but not giving it the tools to win.
Germany as a whole lives in fear of provoking a war with Russia and they will in reality do almost anything to prevent it. This is not a polical class issue but a German issue only 20% of Germans think they should do more to support ukriane, with 40% thinking they have done enough and 40% thinking they have gone to far.
In the east of Germany, there is actually quite a ground swell of positive feelings for Russia and in the west they would prefer to follow the idea of Ostpolitik and engage with Russia.
By now, given the naked brutallity & cruelty of Russia in UKR, we should have at least token troops deployed, prefeably a lot more, demonstrating to Putin & all our enemies watching, that we will not allow UKR to be steam rollered. Instead we prevaricate, grandstand, issue kind words & criticise other allies who do just a little less than us, while indeed supplying just enough support to slowly allow UKR to wither.
If you want to make dictators like Putin or Xi stop you have to match force with force, not endless hand ringing while we steadily disarm/decline our forces even further.
Using the Team America analogy, it’s crazy how Germany went from assholes to being total pussies.
Wallace is a jingoistic nut case.
Why would anybody listen to him?
He is a very reasonable moderate Tory who campaigned for leave.
Why do you call him a ‘jingoistic nut case’?
He was one of the solid guys in the last administration. Well respected too.
Better than the fireplace salesman with his Bond villain tarantula….
Wallace is one of the best – if not the best – Defence secretaries we ever had.
I would agree, sadly he was pushing against a brick wall regarding defence spending too….
Wallace supports foxhunting, which is very wierd. He wasted £180,000 of taxpayers money redecorating the Royal Artillery foxhounds kennels at Larkhill, apparently, he thought the dogs needed cheering up. Of course, he failed to secure decent housing for service families, which is one reason we have such poor retention
Because at least he served his country and actually knows what he’s talking about!
Only in your alternative reality, Stephanovich.
Well we do not have much left to send any more, we have run are own Army down helping them. Used most of the little AMMO we had stock piled. Sent most of our SP Arty and not replaced it. And we do not have the money to replace all this.
To top it off Ukraine is in worst state than if it accepted the Russian first demands, it cannot win back lost land, Any peace deal would see them giving up one way or another all the lost land for now.
Mmm oil refineries,ammo dumps,HQs going bang,economy going down the pan,all going well for the Orcs isn’t it?
Da Komrad these are all smoking accidents 🙂
and look at the bigger picture, stalemate, and mean while our Army etc is a run down paper tiger. And any peace deal will have Ukraine give more than it would have at the start. Russia more like Putin does care about the looses or damage.
Ukraine can not get the lost ground back, they are worse off than before Feb 2022.
Silly me I forgot airfields and factories burning and what is it now over 3/4 million casualties!
O\h yeah Ukraine is better of now than Feb 2022? Russia does not care about its looses never has.
You mean the original peace offer where Ukraine would cease to exist?
well at least they had most of their land, unlike now. Are they better off than pre Feb 2022?
“We”?!?! You talk about us having run down our army to support Ukraine, but English clearly isn’t your first language. Maybe you should stick to your native Russian, or is that equally bad, comrade?
Well yes its my first language you racist, strange that. No answer to what I said just childish insults. So as we gave all but a few AS90’S away, most of our 155mm Ammo, our 120mm Ammo that is not even made any more. plus most of our NLAWS. And is Ukraine better off now than it was?
Meanwhile China supposedly flies the first 6th Gen aircraft.
Well I’ll believe it when its RCS is measured!
I seriously doubt that it is 6th Gen or even real 5th Gen to be perfectly honest.
Simply getting rid of the tail fin doesn’t achieve that much.
Who did they nick plans off this time or copy?