Ukraine orders semi-Swedish robots

– We have received a request from the Ukrainian side in recent days, says an unnamed spokesman for the Agence France-Presse, confirming the information that appeared in the German media.

According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz discussed these bots earlier in May.

The Taurus robot (also known as the KEPD 350) was developed in collaboration between Sweden’s Saab Bofors Dynamics and Germany’s MBDA. These are robots that are launched at targets on the ground from aircraft. It is five meters long, weighs 1.4 tons and, according to Saab, has a range of at least 50 miles.

The Swedish Army does not use bull bots. Today it is found in the armies of Germany, Spain and South Korea. The German Bundeswehr asked for 600 ten years ago.

Ukraine is seeking more support ahead of an expected counteroffensive against Russian-occupied territories. However, many allies, such as the United States, were extremely reluctant to give the country weapons that could hypothetically reach Russia.

Britain announced last week that the country would send long-range Storm Shadow robots to Ukraine. France shortly thereafter announced that it would also send some kind of new robot, but President Emmanuel Macron emphasized that it did not want to send weapons that could reach Russia.