German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius says he is unaware of a British proposal to conduct a two-stage deal in which Germany would give Britain its Taurus cruise missiles and Britain would give Ukraine its Storm Shadow.
The German newspaper Handelsblatt reported on Wednesday that London had made such an offer to Berlin.
"I am not aware of this proposal. If there are talks about it, they are not in my building," Pistorius said on Thursday in an interview with Bild, Welt TV and the online edition of Politico.
According to Handelsblatt, Britain proposed the scheme as a way out of a situation in which Ukraine and its allies have been persistently asking Germany to transfer Taurus cruise missiles, but Germany has been hesitant to take such a step.
"Taurus is a very high-tech system that is incomparable to what other countries produce. That's why we have to carefully consider the conditions under which we will do this," explained Pistorius.
The press and many politicians assume that, in addition to the fear of secret technologies, Berlin fears that Ukraine will use Taurus missiles to strike Russian territory.
Taurus missiles have a range of about 500 kilometers. Britain and France have already given Ukraine an unknown number of their Storm Shadow and SCALP missiles, which are their variants of the same cruise missile. However, according to unofficial reports, Ukraine received these missiles in a modification with a range of only 250 km.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his Social Democratic Party are criticized for their reluctance to provide Ukraine with Taurus missiles even by German politicians from the government coalition.
In a conversation with Reuters, Maria-Agnes Straka-Zimmermann, chairwoman of the Bundestag Defense Committee, said that instead of inventing schemes to transfer missiles in a circle, both Germany and Britain should simply give Ukraine missiles.
"Our European partners will probably think that we have gone completely crazy. Are we riding a carousel in a kindergarten?!" was outraged Straka-Zimmerman.
Background. The day before, it was reported that Britain wants to buy Taurus missiles from Germany for its armed forces, and give Ukraine more Storm Shadow missiles.