Kiev Mayor Vitali Klitschko has called on Germany to send Ukraine Taurus cruise missiles after its Chancellor Friedrich Merz hinted that he was ready for such deliveries, DPA reported, quoted by BTA.
"Chancellor Friedrich Merz Has Quite Accurately Stated in the Past That Russian Attacks on Civilian Targets Should Result in the Delivery of Taurus Missiles," Klitschko said in an article for German newspaper Bild.
The mayor also pointed to the increasing "pure terror" of Russian President Vladimir Putin. "Two thousand buildings were destroyed in our city. "There are wounded and dead again and again," he added. According to Klitschko, Putin has demonstrated that he does not want a truce, peace or an end to the war.
"Putin's goals are completely clear. He wants to put all of Ukraine under his control, whatever the cost," he said. "If we don't stop him together in Ukraine, he will attack other countries after that," the mayor of the capital warned.
Merz's predecessor, Olaf Scholz, refused to deliver Taurus missiles with a range of 500 kilometers for fear of drawing Germany further into the war.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian soldier Bogdan Karasyov, who was captured by Russian forces, told TASS that mercenaries from Italy serve as drone operators in his 23rd mechanized brigade. The fighter who surrendered in the area of the border between Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions said that these were not the first foreigners to fly UAVs in the brigade. "I know that there were also deaths", the captured fighter told TASS.