Alemania es ahora el segundo mayor proveedor de ayuda militar a Ucrania despu\u00e9s de Estados Unidos y est\u00e1 aumentando su apoyo este a\u00f1o. Pero el canciller alem\u00e1n Olaf Scholz lleva meses estancado en el deseo de Ucrania de contar con Misiles de Crucero de Largo Alcance (LRCM) Taurus,, que tienen un alcance de hasta 500 kil\u00f3metros (310 millas) y, en teor\u00eda, podr\u00edan usarse contra objetivos muy dentro del territorio ruso.<\/p>\n
BERLIN (AP) \u2014 German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made clear Monday that he remains reluctant to send Taurus long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine, pointing to a risk of his country becoming directly involved\u00a0in the war<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n Germany is now the second-biggest supplier of\u00a0military aid<\/a><\/span>\u00a0to Ukraine after the United States and is further\u00a0stepping up its support<\/a><\/span>\u00a0this year. But Scholz has stalled for months on Ukraine\u2019s desire for Taurus missiles, which have a range of up to 500 kilometers (310 miles) and could in theory be used against targets far into Russian territory.<\/p>\n He hasn\u2019t stated definitively that they won\u2019t be delivered but offered the clearest explanation yet of his hesitancy \u2014 which has annoyed both Germany\u2019s conservative opposition and some in his own three-party coalition \u2014 at an editorial conference of German news agency dpa.<\/p>\n The chancellor has long emphasized his determination\u00a0to help Ukraine<\/a><\/span>\u00a0without escalating the war and drawing Germany and NATO into it, and stressed that no German soldiers will go to Ukraine.<\/p>\n Britain and France have long since announced that they were sending Storm Shadow and Scalp long-range missiles, respectively, to Ukraine.<\/p>\n Scholz said Monday that the Taurus is \u201ca very far-reaching weapon\u201d and added: \u201cWhat is being done in the way of target control and accompanying target control on the part of the British and the French can\u2019t be done in Germany. Everyone who has dealt with this system knows that.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked if he\u2019s worried that German soldiers would have to go to Ukraine to control what the missiles target, Scholz said that \u201cGerman soldiers must at no point and in no place be linked to targets this (Taurus) system reaches,\u201d and added \u201dnot in Germany either.\u201d<\/p>\n He said there are good reasons why the missiles are not the next option on the agenda. \u201cThis clarity is necessary. I am surprised that this doesn\u2019t move some people, that they don\u2019t even think about whether, as it were, a participation in the war could emerge from what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n Scholz suggested that the German debate over Taurus missiles has lost sight of what Ukraine actually needs now. \u201cWhat Ukraine is missing is ammunition at all possible distances, but not decisively this thing from Germany,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Last week, German lawmakers called on the government to deliver further\u00a0long-range weapons<\/a><\/span>\u00a0to Ukraine, but voted down an opposition call explicitly urging it to send Taurus long-range cruise missiles.<\/p>\n A motion drawn up by the governing parties urged the government to keep up military support and said \u201cthis includes the delivery of further necessary long-range weapons systems and ammunition\u201d to enable attacks on \u201cstrategically important targets far in the rear of the Russian aggressor.\u201d<\/p>\n That unspecific formulation allowed government lawmakers to advocate sending Taurus missiles, or not.<\/p>\n