Germany's Baerbock says more talk on Taurus is not useful

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has warned against unnecessary public debate on sending German Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine.

"I have spoken out extensively on Taurus and do not believe that the ongoing public debate on Taurus will take us one step further," the Green Party politician told the Funke Mediengruppe on Friday.

Part of Russia's war propaganda serves the purpose of dividing and destabilizing Western democracies, she said.

"We must not allow that. This is all the more true when we are facing elections - such as the European elections or state elections in Germany."

Germany's coalition government has been arguing for many weeks about the delivery of sophisticated missiles to Ukraine, which has been under a full-scale attack from Russia for more than two years.

Baerbock is considered to be in favour of a delivery, but German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a Social Democrat, is against this.

He justifies his opposition to exporting the Taurus missiles by saying that Germany should not relinquish control over the targeting of the system - meaning Germany personnel would still be involved in its use - and it could be used to hit targets in Russia.