The German government's reluctance stems from fears that Kyiv might use these missiles to strike Russian territory. Additionally, the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) have only 150 missiles ready for deployment.

As reported by Bild, the number of usable Taurus missiles in Germany is actually greater, with over 300 cruise missiles having undergone major refurbishment at the MBDA arms production consortium and are ready for use.

Journalists point out that major refurbishment is carried out every 10 years. More than 300 Taurus missiles have already had their seals renewed and GPS navigation improved for better protection.

Moreover, they mention that the use of these missiles by Ukrainian fighter jets should not be too challenging from a technical standpoint. Since May, the Ukrainian Air Force has been employing Storm Shadow and SCALP missiles from MBDA, supplied by the United Kingdom and France.

Earlier, the head of the permanent delegation of the Verkhovna Rada to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Yehor Cherniev, announced that he received information from German colleagues about the agreement of key Bundestag parliamentary groups to send long-range missiles Taurus to Ukraine.

At the end of May, Ukraine officially asked Germany to provide it with Taurus cruise missiles with a range of up to 500 kilometres. However, since then, they have consistently received refusals, despite the UK and France's decision to supply long-range missiles.

Recently, calls on to supply long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine were finally made from the ruling Social Democratic Party of Germany.