Ukraine says talks with Berlin about Taurus missiles continue

Ukraine's foreign minister says he remains in discussion with the German government about acquiring German-made Taurus cruise missiles, reported dpa.

Dmytro Kuleba reiterated that Ukraine is seeking the advanced missiles from Germany in order to strike Russian military infrastructure on occupied Ukrainian territory, not to hit targets in Russia.

"We don't need a Taurus to attack Moscow," Kuleba emphasized in an interview with the news outlets Bild, Welt.tv and Politico.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has so far rejected the delivery of Taurus missiles to Ukraine, apparently out of concern that firing on Russian territory with the German missiles would lead to a further escalation of the conflict.

Kuleba once again sought to address those concerns in the interview.

In the German parliament last week, lawmakers from Scholz's three-party coalition blocked a motion from the conservative opposition CDU/CSU bloc to deliver Taurus missiles to Ukraine.

However, many coalition lawmakers, especially from the Greens and the market-oriented Free Democrats (FDP), have expressed personal support for shipping Taurus missiles to Ukraine despite voting against the motion.

At a European Union summit next week, national leaders plan to discuss further arms aid for Ukraine, partly at the request of Scholz.

Ukraine has been fending off Russia's full-scale military invasion for almost two years, and is heavily dependent on Western military aid.

Wednesday marks the 700th day since the full-scale war began, although lower-level fighting broke out in eastern Ukraine in 2014, followed by Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.