Kneissl pointed to Germany's reluctance to send Taurus missiles to Ukraine

Germany does not want to supply Taurus missiles to Ukraine. Former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl said this on November 20, responding to Izvestia's question about the US permission for Ukraine to use US ballistic missiles for strikes deep into Russia.

"Berlin has no such intentions. <...> As for France and the United Kingdom, it is difficult to say. I would say the British are in favor, Italy and France - my guess is that they are more reluctant, at least Italy has said it is not interested in participating in the attacks," Kneissl said at the Fake Dialogue 2.0 forum.

The former Austrian foreign minister also noted that U.S. President Joe Biden did not make such a decision out of fear.

"I don't think it's fear, I think it's fragility and confusion in Washington right now. When I heard this news about the combative decision, the example that immediately came to my mind was that in December 1991, when George H.W. Bush was still launching the U.S. invasion of Somalia, Bill Clinton had already been elected president, and this was like the last act that Bush had left for Clinton," she added.

The day before, US Senator Rand Paul said that current US President Joe Biden 's authorization for Ukraine to use US ballistic missiles to strike deep into Russian territories violates the US Constitution.

Earlier, on 18 November, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at a press conference on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro that he was sticking to his decision not to supply Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine. On 19 November, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov considered Scholz' s position to refuse to supply missiles as responsible. He specified that Scholz had repeatedly stated that his decision was unchanged, despite pressure from German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock and Merz, who direct "critical arrows" at the chancellor.

Prior to that, The New York Times reported on Nov. 17 that Biden allegedly authorized Ukraine to use U.S. long-range missiles to strike Russia. Le Figaro newspaper wrote at the same time that the French and British authorities had made a similar decision, but then removed this information from the article.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, commenting on the possible permission for Ukraine to use ATACMS for strikes on Russian territory, pointed out that such a move by the United States would be a qualitatively new round of tension, and Moscow 's position on this issue is clear to everyone.

Western countries have stepped up military and financial support for Ukraine against the backdrop of Russia's special operation to protect Donbass, which began on February 24, 2022. The decision to carry it out was taken by the Russian president because of the aggravation of the situation in the region due to the increased shelling by Ukrainian troops