Polish Foreign Minister urges Germany's Scholz to give missiles to Ukraine

BERLIN: Following the delivery of long-range US missiles to Ukraine, Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski is hoping that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will change his mind and provide the attacked country with German Taurus cruise missiles.

"I hope the Chancellor feels encouraged by the events of the last few days," said Sikorski in an interview with German newspaper Bild am Sonntag and other Axel Springer media in Warsaw.

Sikorski described the delivery of US ATACMS missiles to Ukraine as a "reaction to the Russian escalation" in Ukraine, to which Germany must also respond.

A few days ago, it became known that Ukraine had received long-range ATACMS missiles from the US. However, the Pentagon did not provide any specific details as to whether these were models with a range of around 300 kilometres or those with a shorter range.

The media reported that they were the longer-range models. The US had already sent ATACMS missiles with a shorter range last year.

Scholz has so far emphatically rejected supplying Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine. He fears that Germany could be drawn into the war if the missiles with a range of 500 kilometres are provided.

"The Russians have already shut down 70% of Ukraine's power generation capacity. That is actually a war crime," Sikorski continued.

A conference on the reconstruction of Ukraine after the war had taken place in Berlin. However, it would be better to prevent the destruction of the country in the first place, the Polish Foreign Minister pointed out.

In dealing with Russian President Vladimir Putin as the aggressor in the Ukraine war, he said, one had to be tough.

"I think we all know now that Putin only reacts to pressure, to the harshest arguments of brute force."