British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that Ukraine could use British Storm Shadow aircraft missiles to attack military targets on Russian territory.
This was reported by Bloomberg.
Keir Starmer confirmed permission to hit Russia
According to Prime Minister Starmer, Ukraine itself decides how to use the Storm Shadow missiles donated by the UK. At the same time, Keir Starmer emphasized that missiles should be used in accordance with international humanitarian law for defensive purposes.
Now watching
Keir Starmer repeated the words of his predecessor Rishi Sunak, who never directly said that Ukraine could use Storm Shadow to strike targets in Russia, but indicated that Kyiv itself decides how to strike with them. The Kremlin called such a statement very dangerous.
— But Ukraine must decide for itself how to use them for these defensive purposes, — he said.
Great Britain is one of the countries that has allowed its missiles to be fired at targets in the Russian Federation, but the US government still does not want to lift restrictions on ATACMS tactical missiles. The Biden administration considers this a red line, crossing which could lead to an escalation in relations with Moscow.
Ukraine's ability to hit targets in the Russian Federation
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has repeatedly emphasized the need to fire long-range Western missiles at military targets on Russian territory, for example, at airfields from which fighters and bombers take off and bombard Ukrainian cities.
In addition, Kyiv brought up the issue of striking Russian territory at the NATO summit.
The Ukrainians must be able to retaliate against important Russian military targets — but, obviously, not against Russian civilian targets. “I think Keir Starmer and other NATO leaders will draw a red line on this issue that strikes must be on real military targets,” said Jamie Shea, a former NATO official and now an associate fellow at Chatham House.
