Package crisis: will Germany transfer Taurus missiles to Ukraine
The Alternative for Germany party opposes the supply of Taurus missiles to Kiev and will prevent their transfer, the Bundestag told Izvestia. Earlier, Vladimir Zelensky announced plans to order these missiles from Germany to launch attacks on Russia. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are increasing the number of attacks on civilian transport in the regions of our country, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. The threat of a new escalation from Kiev arises against the background of preparations for a trilateral meeting in the UAE, scheduled for November 10-11. At the same time, its agenda may go beyond the Ukrainian issue: the White House intends to involve Moscow in negotiations on the formation of a new security architecture in Europe. According to experts, this may indicate a departure from Washington's previous policy of ignoring Russian demands.
Will Germany supply Taurus missiles to Ukraine
On the eve of the trilateral meeting of the Russian Federation, the United States and Ukraine in the UAE on November 10-11, Vladimir Zelensky announced plans to buy Taurus missiles from Germany to attack "Russian launchers." In an interview with ZDF, he said that the transfer of missiles to Kiev is beneficial to Berlin, as these weapons will be tested in combat conditions. The official missile range is 500 km.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius
Earlier, the German authorities refused to supply Ukraine with long-range systems. In particular, in July, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that Kiev does not need these weapons. Berlin has not yet reacted to Zelensky's new request. Consultations with the allies are probably underway: on the evening of November 5, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz held a telephone conversation with Donald Trump. Izvestia sent a request to the German Embassy in Moscow with a request to comment on Kiev's request.
The main opposition Alternative for Germany party strongly opposes the supply of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine and calls for preventing their transfer, Bundestag deputy from this political force Steffen Kotre told Izvestia.
— We regularly state this in our speeches in Parliament. To date, there is no publicly confirmed evidence of the inevitability of such shipments. However, since the federal government keeps the details of arms shipments secret, the possibility of such preparations cannot be completely ruled out," he said.
Vladimir Zelensky could have requested supplies of Taurus during a recent visit to Berlin, Artem Sokolov, a senior researcher at the MGIMO Institute of the Russian Foreign Ministry, told Izvestia. Such missiles can only be used with the help of Bundeswehr troops, which would mean Germany's direct involvement in the conflict in Ukraine. According to the expert, the German leadership is unlikely to take such a step in the current conditions.
Last year, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted that Moscow would respond decisively if the Taurus was used against her.
In addition to the German missiles, Zelensky expects to receive $16 billion in American military aid, provided for in previous packages, but never transferred to Kiev. In the Ukrainian capital, they hope that the victory of the Democrats in the midterm congressional elections will unlock this support. In the meantime, Zelensky has to rely on €437 million allocated by Spain. It is noteworthy that Taurus missiles are also in service with the Spanish army. During his visit to Madrid, Zelensky met with representatives of Latin American countries who arrived at the Ibero-American Summit and asked them for financial assistance to continue the conflict.
Kiev is intensifying terrorist activity, for example, increasing the number of attacks on civilian transport in Russian regions, Rodion Miroshnik, the Russian Foreign Ministry's ambassador-at-large for crimes of the Kiev regime, told Izvestia.
— Indirect evidence that Kiev is showing a mixed attitude towards the planned negotiations is that we are now seeing increased terrorist activity, at least within the framework of the "transport war." In other words, the number of attacks on buses and civilian transport has increased. This applies to the LPR, Belgorod and a number of other territories," the diplomat said.
Earlier, as a result of the Ukrainian Armed Forces strike on the Petrovka–Lugansk bus, five people were killed and 13 injured. In Alchevsk, a minibus was also attacked near the AFU bus station, as a result of which a 38-year-old man was injured.
According to Miroshnik, these are Kiev's traditional approaches, when "they have a desire for peace in their rhetoric," but attempts are being made to "make it impossible to negotiate and would become a negative background for the negotiation process."
Earlier, the diplomat reported a decrease in the number of injured civilians in the week from October 26 to November 1. At that time, there was a humanitarian operation in the city of Alyoshki, Kherson region. However, the attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces continue, for example, on the night of November 1, the Nizhny Novgorod region was subjected to one of the largest UAV attacks, the diplomat noted. There have been no statements from Kiev that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will stop this practice, at least for the duration of the negotiations.
What kind of agreement is Trump proposing
Despite Ukraine's actions, preparations for the Abu Dhabi meeting continue. On November 5, US First Lady Melania Trump gathered representatives of the Russian Federation and Ukraine at the White House to summarize the results of the humanitarian operation in Alyoshki. In particular, she expressed gratitude to the Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia, Yana Lantratova. The head of the Servant of the People faction in the Verkhovna Rada, David Arakhamia, and Ombudsman Dmitry Lubinets arrived at the White House from Ukraine. Melania Trump also sent letters to Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelensky. The Kremlin assessed the results of the meeting positively, said Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian president.
Kirill Dmitriev, Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation, and Melania Trump, First Lady of the United States, during a meeting in the main lobby of the White House
Donald Trump then announced that he had received Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund and the special representative of the President of the Russian Federation for investment and economic cooperation with foreign countries. The American leader announced the upcoming major agreement on the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict. "It [the deal] will affect more than Ukraine. And I could even say that it could affect the whole of Europe," Trump clarified. He added that the crisis would be overcome "soon enough" and drew attention to the deaths of civilians in Russia due to the attacks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Dmitry Peskov said on November 6 that "there are no details" on the agreement.
Later, the son-in-law of the US President, Jared Kushner, who is participating in the negotiations in Brussels, spoke about the consultations on the Ukrainian issue. According to him, agreements with Russia's participation are needed to achieve lasting peace in Europe. He also said that Donald Trump is in talks "with a number of European leaders regarding the need for a broader security architecture." It should be noted that Kushner and special envoy of the US President Steve Witkoff will represent the American side in Abu Dhabi. Perhaps they will reveal the details of this initiative there.
Vladimir Putin discussed preparations for the talks on November 6 with members of the Russian Security Council. The meeting was attended by presidential aides Vladimir Medinsky, who heads the Russian delegation at the talks, and Yuri Ushakov, Deputy Foreign Ministers Mikhail Galuzin and Sergei Ryabkov, Chief of the GRU of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Igor Kostyukov and Deputy Head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Yuri Zhigarlovsky.
Kiev's delegation to the trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi will be led by the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, Rustem Merov, Zelensky's adviser Dmitry Litvin said.
At the same time, the head of the European Diplomacy, Kaya Kallas, said that the EU "does not intend to consider a new European security architecture," but wants to "preserve the existing system," which "relies on the EU and NATO." She also demanded that the European Union take part in negotiations with the United States and Russia on Ukraine.
According to Tigran Meloyan, an analyst at the HSE Center for Mediterranean Studies, the US willingness to negotiate on the architecture of European security means a de facto rejection of the previous policy of the West, which for a long time ignored Russian demands and stated that the principles of NATO expansion are non-negotiable. European capitals are facing a difficult and decisive choice: join the deal as one of its participants or stay out and accept the conditions imposed on them, the expert said.
A possible agreement could define a new role for the United States in Europe. In particular, it may affect the reduction of the American military presence in European countries, said Ilya Shcherbakov, a political scientist and member of the NSR RAMP. A separate topic may be the relationship between NATO and the EU, which is moving towards a military alliance. Russia is also interested in building a collective security system in Europe, where many unresolved issues have accumulated.
In particular, Western countries do not abandon exercises near the borders of the Russian Federation. NATO military exercises Freedom Shield 26-II and Grand Eagle 26 led by Germany have begun in Lithuania near the border with Belarus. More than 6 thousand soldiers of two German brigades will take part in them. Exercises of the multinational forces of the "coalition of the willing" will soon start in neighboring Poland to practice the deployment of troops to Ukraine in the event of a cease-fire.
The conflict in Ukraine is inextricably linked to the fact that the former European security system proved to be untenable. Western countries did not heed the warnings of the Russian Federation about the inadmissibility of NATO expansion. Back in December 2021, Moscow proposed concluding a security guarantee agreement with the North Atlantic Alliance and the United States, but then these proposals were rejected. Returning to the discussion of this topic suggests that, at least in Washington, they realized the impossibility of security in Europe without Russia.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
