Keir Starmer declines to rule out allowing Ukraine to use Storm Shadow missiles in Russia
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Sir Keir Starmer has declined to rule out allowing Ukraine to use UK-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles for strikes inside Russia, after President Joe Biden authorised the use of US-supplied long-range weapons.
The UK prime minister said he did not want to get into “operational details”, arguing the only beneficiary would be Russian President Vladimir Putin.
His intervention came amid a flurry of diplomatic activity as UK defence secretary John Healey spoke to his US counterpart Lloyd Austin on Sunday and prepared to speak with his Ukrainian opposite number on Monday.
There are not believed to be large numbers of Storm Shadows left in allied stocks, and western officials have warned that the lengthy discussions between Nato partners about whether to grant Kyiv permission to use these or equivalent US or French weapons inside Russia has given Moscow the ability to move key kit and other targets, such as bomber aircraft, back outside of their range.
The Kremlin said on Monday the US decision to let Ukraine launch limited strikes inside Russia with Atacms marked a “new turn of escalation” in the nearly three-year conflict, adding Moscow would react “appropriately”.
Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesperson, said the outgoing Biden administration was trying “to keep pouring fuel on the fire and provoke an escalation of tensions”, according to Interfax.
