The difference between the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine, on the one hand, and the manufacturing of Ukrainian ballistic missiles or drones with German financing, on the other hand, is not merely “semantic.”

Ukraine has more knowhow in manufacturing ballistic missiles than Germany, since Germany was forbidden to develop missile technology after the war. Even the Taurus missiles are made with US key components.

Thus, while the German government refused to deliver the Taurus missiles because it would have involved programming of the flightpath by German officers, which could have been interpreted as war participation, a Ukrainian-made ballistic missile requires no German operational input.