President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in an interview reported by RBC-Ukraine, argued in detail for the necessity of acquiring Taurus cruise missiles for the country's armed forces. According to him, Kyiv does not intend to use these munitions against civilian objects, infrastructure, or energy facilities of the Russian Federation. "Why do we want to order 'Taurus'? Because when the Americans couldn't provide us with anti-ballistic missiles for air defense, we have only one way out: to destroy Russian launchers. They built entire sites and are killing us, while we cannot defend ourselves. These are not civilian objects, not infrastructure, not energy," stated the head of state.
The "only way out" argument and rejection of strikes on civilian targets
Zelenskyy emphasized that the decision to order Taurus is dictated by Kyiv's refusal to shift to strikes on rear civilian facilities. According to his logic, since the United States did not provide Ukraine with anti-ballistic missiles for air defense systems, the only way to neutralize the threat is to destroy the launch sites themselves from which the shelling is conducted. The president directly stated that there is no talk of strikes on energy or other civilian infrastructure, which, he claims, fundamentally distinguishes the Ukrainian position from the rhetoric that skeptics are using.
Testing as a mutually beneficial deal
Zelenskyy placed particular emphasis on the fact that Ukraine intends not only to acquire Taurus missiles but also to conduct combat testing on them. According to him, this is mutually beneficial: Kyiv gets the opportunity to test the effectiveness of the munition in real combat conditions, and the supplier gets data to refine and improve the reliability of the system. The president cited the IRIS-T air defense system as an example, which, in his estimation, Ukraine has turned into "the number one brand in the world after the 'Patriots'." "Now this system costs from 600 thousand to somewhere around a million to one and a half million. This war did that. We also fixed all the problematic issues, because only in a real war can you truly get rid of the weak spots of one or another protection," explained Zelenskyy.
Economic effect for the supplier: waiting lists for 10–20 years
Zelenskyy also pointed out the economic consequences of combat testing for the German defense sector. According to his data, waiting lists for IRIS-T orders in Germany have stretched to 10–20 years, which, he said, means job creation and an increase in the value of the missile by "dozens of times." Thus, the president attempted to answer the question of skeptics about what exactly Ukraine does for the countries providing it with military support: combat use and refinement of air defense systems, he argues, increase their market value and competitiveness in the global arms market.
Context: Sweden has already received Taurus, while Merz doubts the feasibility of shipments
It should be recalled that the Swedish armed forces have already received a batch of Taurus cruise missiles from the German army's stocks; the exact number of transferred munitions is not disclosed. Against this background, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz previously stated that he does not see any point in supplying Taurus missiles to Ukraine because, according to him, Ukrainian weapons are more effective. Merz's position and Zelenskyy's arguments form two opposite vectors in the discussion about which weapon systems Kyiv needs to solve the task of destroying enemy launchers.
