The Taurus KEPD 350 cruise missile. By Wikimedia user (axesofevil2000)
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has warned Germany and France against supplying Ukraine with long-range missiles.
Peskov told the “Moscow. Kremlin. Putin” program on the Rossiya-1 TV channel on June 4 that the supply of such missiles will only lead to more escalation.
“Now we are already seeing that discussion begins about deliveries, for example, from France, Germany of missiles with a range of 500 or more kilometers. This is a qualitatively different weaponry, which will eventually, let’s say, lead to another spiral of escalating tensions,” the spokesman cautioned, answering questions from journalist Pavel Zarubin.
In May, reports in the German media revealed that Ukraine had submitted a request asking Berlin to supply long-range KEPD 350 Taurus cruise missiles.
The Taurus is a Swedish-German low-observable, air-launched cruise missile with a reported range of more than 500 kilometers.
The missile utilizes a GPS-aided inertial navigation system backed by a terrain contour matching system. The same thermographic camera used for terrain navigation helps the missile home on its target during final approach using image matching.
The Taurus is comparable to the Anglo-French Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missile, which the United Kingdom supplied to Ukraine early earlier on in May.
A Storm Shadow missile inside the Royal Air Force museum in London. By Wikimedia user (Corrado Baldassi).
Ukraine reportedly received an export version of the Storm Shadow with the range downgraded from 560 kilometers to just 250. However, there is no downgraded version of the Taurus, which means Germany could supply Ukraine with the original version that can in theory reach the Russian capital, Moscow.
French media reports from May also revealed that Ukraine could soon the French version of the Storm Shado, which is known as SCALP EG [Système de Croisière Autonome à Longue Portée – Emploi Général, meaning General Purpose Long Range Cruise Missile]. It remains unclear if the range of this version will be also limited to 250 kilometers.
The Russian military has already intercepted dozens of Storm Shadow missiles. A number of Ukrainian Soviet-made Su-24 fighter bombers which were modified to launch the long-range cruise missile were also either shot down or destroyed on the ground.
By boosting Kiev’s long-range strike capabilities, the West is not only escalating the conflict in Ukraine but also risking a direct confrontation with Russia.
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