Giving Ukraine the weapons it needs to defend itself against Russia will not escalate the war but help bring peace, David Cameron has said. The UK foreign secretary spoke on a trip to Berlin, less than a week after the leak of top secret military information revealed domestic tensions over Germany's support for Kiev.
Germany is under increasing international pressure to provide Taurus missiles to Ukraine, despite the reluctance of Olaf Scholz's government.
In apparently encouraging words for Berlin, the UK foreign secretary said: "Of course there is the question of what we can do about medium and long-range missiles and I just want to stress that that is a sovereign decision for each country. But in terms of what Britain has done, I know that what we have given the Ukrainians has helped them to resist this appalling invasion and to push back against Russian aggression."
The meeting came at a sensitive time for Berlin, shortly after Kremlin-controlled media in Russia published an intercepted conversation between senior German military officials about Ukraine. During the conversation, the generals discussed Britain's involvement in Ukraine, as well as the logistics of deploying the German-made Taurus missiles.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has repeatedly refused requests to authorize the use of the missiles in Ukraine, as he believes this would mean the deployment of German troops on Ukrainian territory. In Germany, there are also fears that the range of the missiles of 500 km. means that they could be used to strike at mainland Russia, which would escalate the conflict and make Germany a participant in the war.
On March 7, Cameron appeared alongside German Foreign Minister Analena Berbock on Thursday. Neither of them directly affected the intercepted conversation. When asked about him, Cameron replied: "I don't want to get into some Russian narrative about the division between allies. What I see is incredible unity among allies, incredible unity in NATO."
Cameron's reluctance to engage directly with the leak was at odds with former defense secretary Ben Wallace, who was quoted by The Times as saying it was evidence that Germany was "neither secure nor trustworthy".
Acknowledging the "enormous volume" Germany has made as Ukraine's second-largest arms supplier after the US, Cameron said in Berbock's presence: "We both know we have to ask ourselves and all our allies: 'What else can we do? do? What more ammunition can we provide, what additional production can we invest in, what weapons do we have that can help the Ukrainians in this fight?"/BGNES