Russia today threatened Britain with ‘an adequate response from our military’ after the UK agreed to supply Ukraine with Storm Shadow long-range missiles.
The missiles, which cost about £2.2million, will allow Ukraine to hit Russian troops and logistics hubs deep behind the front line in a major blow to Vladimir Putin.
Britain had received assurances from the Ukrainian government that these missiles would be used only within Ukrainian sovereign territory and not inside Russia, multiple senior Western officials said.
Ukraine has been asking for months for long-range missiles, but support provided by Britain and other allies such as the United States has previously been limited to shorter range weapons.
But UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace today confirmed that Britain is sending the Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine, a decision that prompted a furious response from the Kremlin.
Pictured: A graphic showing how the Storm Shadow Missiles would work on the battlefield
Russia today threatened Britain with an ‘an adequate response from our military’ after the UK agreed to supply Ukraine with Storm Shadow long-range missiles (file image)
The missiles, which cost about £2.2million, will allow Ukraine to hit Russian troops and logistics hubs deep behind the front line in a major blow to Vladimir Putin (pictured on May 9)
UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace today confirmed that Britain is sending the Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine, a decision that prompted a furious response from the Kremlin
‘The donation of these weapons systems gives Ukraine the best chance to defend themselves against Russia’s continued brutality especially with the deliberate targeting of Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, which is against international law,’ Wallace told the House of Commons. ‘Ukraine has a right to be able to defend itself.’
Storm Shadow
The Storm Shadow, also known as SCALP, is an air-to-ground missile that can hit fixed or stationary targets.
Length: 16ft 9in
Range: 350 miles
Speed: 600mph
Wallace said the missiles would be used to push back Russian forces in ‘Ukrainian sovereign territory,’ while adding that the UK’s support for Ukraine is ‘responsible, calibrated, coordinated and agile.’
‘We simply will not stand back while Russia kills civilians,’ Wallace said.
Wallace did not say how many cruise missiles were being sent to Ukraine, but said they are ‘now going into or are in the country itself’.
Earlier, a Western official had told CNN about the decision to supply Ukraine with the missiles, saying: ‘The UK has previously said that it will supply Ukraine with long-range weapons, this will now include a number of Storm Shadow missiles.
‘The British government has been clear that this is only in response to Russia’s deliberate targeting of civilian national infrastructure and is a proportionate response.’
The Kremlin said the reports would require ‘an adequate response from our military’.
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The Storm Shadow is an air-launched long-range missile, designed for attacks against high value targets such as hardened bunkers and key infrastructure.
The missiles, jointly developed by the UK and France, has a firing range of more than 155 miles (250km) which means Kyiv would be able to strike deep into Russian-held territory in eastern Ukraine where the fiercest battles are ongoing.
The missile is ‘a real game changer from a range perspective,’ a senior US military official said. At the moment, Ukraine’s current maximum range on US-provided weapons is around 49 miles.
The UK’s decision to supply the missiles comes as Wallace and the foreign minister James Cleverly have been in the United States for talks on supporting Ukraine in recent weeks.
Britain and other Western countries have scaled up their military aid for Ukraine this year, with Britain saying in January it would send 14 of its main Challenger 2 battle tanks to Ukraine, a pledge that was followed by other nations including the United States and Germany.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told the Munich Security Conference in February that Britain would be the first country to provide Ukraine with longer range weapons.
The United States said in February it would provide the Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB), which has a range of about 151 km.
The Storm Shadow (pictured, centre) is an air-launched long-range missile, designed for attacks against high value targets such as hardened bunkers and key infrastructure
The UK’s decision to supply the missiles comes as Britain’s defence minister Ben Wallace and the foreign minister James Cleverly have been in the United States for talks on supporting Ukraine in recent weeks. Pictured: Cleverly with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington DC, US, on May 9
Artillery rocket units of the mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Army conduct operation to target trenches of Russian forces through the Donetsk region in Ukraine on May 9
A Ukrainian soldier fires an RPG toward Russian positions at the frontline near Kremenna in the Luhansk region, Ukraine, on Tuesday
Ukrainian soldiers walk through the forest close to the Russian positions near Kremenna in the Luhansk region, Ukraine, on Tuesday
Asked on Tuesday about supplying long range missiles, Cleverly declined to detail specific plans but he said it was important to keep looking at ways to ‘enhance and speed up the support we give to Ukraine’.
The war in Ukraine is at a turning point, with Kyiv expected to unleash its new counteroffensive after six months of keeping its forces on the defensive, while Russia mounted a huge winter offensive that failed to capture significant territory.
Moscow’s main target for months has been the small eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which it has come close to capturing but not quite taken in what would be its sole prize after months of the bloodiest ground combat in Europe since World War Two.
Kyiv says it has pushed Russian forces back over the past two days near Bakhmut in small-scale local assaults, but a counteroffensive involving tens of thousands of troops and hundreds of new Western tanks has yet to begin.
‘We still need a bit more time,’ President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday.
Ukrainian forces had already received enough equipment from Western allies for their campaign, but were waiting for the full complement to arrive to reduce casualties, Zelensky said.
‘With [what we have] we can go forward and be successful,’ he said. ‘But we’d lose a lot of people. I think that’s unacceptable.’
In anticipation of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, Russia has resumed air strikes on Ukraine over the past two weeks after a lull of nearly two months. Moscow says Ukraine has used drones to strike occupied areas and Russian territory near the border.
