The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany, Annalena Baerbock, said that it was necessary to speed up the transfer of long-range missiles to Ukraine.
Every day is important, because Russia’s violence in Ukraine increases every day, the politician emphasized. Such a statement is fully justified against the background of Russian missile terror (in particular, on August 19, seven people were killed by the Russian cruise missile Iskander-K in Chernihiv). Ukraine ensures peace in Europe, and pays for it with the lives of not only Ukrainian soldiers, but also Ukrainian civilians. The West should properly assess the contribution that Ukraine made to the peace and independence of Europe against the background of the aggressive expansion initiated by Putin. The German Taurus long-range missiles, as well as the American AGM-158 JASSM (both types belong to the air-to-surface missiles), are capable of hitting a wide range of both fixed and mobile targets. We are talking about fortifications, fire points, concentrations of manpower and armored vehicles, air defense systems, fighter jets and helicopters located on the bases. The technical characteristics of such missiles allow for powerful, high-precision strikes on selected targets in the depths of the Russian rear. As the British Storm Shadow missiles has shown in its usage, Russian air defense systems are mostly not capable of neutralizing this type of missiles, and it is not for nothing that Russian propaganda hysterically reacts to the decision of Western countries to transfer appropriate weapons to the Armed Forces. Putin has been committing crimes against peaceful Ukrainians for a very long time, cynically calling the attacks on residential buildings and the killing of civilians “attacks on military facilities.” Under such circumstances, Ukraine has the right to defend itself in accordance with the customs of warfare and to destroy Russian military targets, with the help of which Putin is carrying out the genocide of Ukrainians. Taking into account the fact that two NATO countries — the Netherlands and Denmark have already decided to donate F-16 fighters to Ukraine, the further transfer of AGM-158 JASSM missiles is seen as a completely logical step. According to its characteristics, the F-16 is incompatible with Storm Shadow missiles or SCALP, but compatible with the AGM-158 JASSM. In the West, they realize that the transfer of such missiles to Ukraine is the only option: Putin continues further escalation, one of the manifestations of which is a terrible war crime — the death of peaceful Ukrainians, who die almost every day from Russian missiles and drones. If Russia is not stopped in Ukraine, Europeans will die too already in the medium term. Modern Western weapons are the only way to stop the territorial expansion of Putin, who seeks to change the existing world order and make the West the Kremlin’s vassal. In this regard, modern long-range missiles are far from the most expensive investment to weaken the Russian military machine and restore stable peace in Europe.