The number of Germans who support Chancellor Olaf Scholz's decision to decline to supply Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine has increased compared to February.

According to Die Zeit, only 28% of respondents support providing Kyiv with Taurus missiles with a range of 500 kilometres.

58% are against the provision of this weapons system. More than half of them (31%) would rather Germany not supply Ukraine with weapons of any kind. 14% could not answer the question.

The survey of 2,169 Germans was conducted from 1 to 5 March, after the chancellor explicitly ruled out the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles on Monday of last week.

Behind Scholz's refusal is the fear that Germany could be drawn into a war if the cruise missiles hit Russian territory, or if German soldiers are deployed in Ukraine to assist in the system’s operation. 

In this way, Scholz is on the same page as the German public. The results of YouGov polls measuring opposition to the delivery of Tauri have changed within the past few weeks alone. At the beginning of February (survey conducted from 2 to 6 February), 31% were still in favour and only 49% were against when asked the same question.

The Russians have recently published intercepted conversations between top German Air Force officials regarding the Taurus in an attempt to impede the delivery of the weapon.