Britain has been accused of slowing its support for Ukraine by President Volodymyr Zelensky at a key time for the beleaguered country, which has struck a stunning blow to Putin with a successful counteroffensive into Russian territory.
But with the Kremlin on the back foot after two years of grinding trench warfare, Zelensky says that Ukraine’s forces are being “hindered” from further weakening their Russian aggressors, who have continued to unleash a barrage of long-range missiles on Ukrainian civilians in recent weeks. This includes three cruise missile strikes on the capital, Kyiv.
Pressure is mounting on Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to lift the barrier blocking Ukraine from striking back with its own ‘Storm Shadow’ missiles, which could target ammunition depots and other strategic points inside Russian territory. This week, President Zelensky added to these calls, saying: “We will discuss how to fix this because long-range capabilities are vital for us. The whole world sees how effective Ukrainians are – how our entire nation defends its independence.”
The president has urged that, without more support for the country’s impressive counteroffensive, the Russian war machine will grind on. But at this critical juncture, Zelensky said that Britain was not keeping up, saying: “Unfortunately, the situation has slowed down recently.”
The policy to ban the use of British Storm Shadow missiles from use on Russian territory by Ukraine was a Conservative policy, aimed at preventing a wider escalation of the conflict, that has been continued under Sir Keir Starmer’s new Labour government. However, consent for their long-ranged use inside Russia would also require the approval of the missile’s other manufacturers, France and the United States.
According to the Telegraph, a major block to their approval for use by the resurgent Ukrainian forces has been the US White House, which has denied reports that they have refused a UK request to allow the use of the Storm Shadow. With the long-ranged weapon, which can be launched from many of the aircraft used by Ukraine, military targets 340 miles into Russian territory could be struck.
“Long-range capabilities are the answer to the most critical strategic questions of this war,” Zelensky added in his recent remarks, while his troops continued to shore up their breakthrough into Russia’s Kursk region, where Russian supply lines have been shortened to a single bridge into the area after Ukraine blew up the other two key bridges into the province. On Friday, Ukraine’s General Oleksandr Syrskii declared that their forces had taken more than 1000sq km of territory in just a week.
Use of the ‘Storm Shadow’ could be on the horizon, it emerged on Friday that Joe Biden was now “open” to giving Ukraine the green light to begin deploying them against targets inside Russia. An administration official told Politico that the White House was ironing out the “complicated” details.
This could help Ukraine to fortify its foothold in Kursk. During his nightly address, President Zelensky said: “It is now our primary task in defensive operations overall to destroy as much Russian war potential as possible and conduct maximum counteroffensive actions.
“This includes creating a buffer zone on the aggressor’s territory – our operation in the Kursk region.”
However, US officials are also said to be skeptical about their effectiveness in the overall war effort. One told the Telegraph: “Russia assumed that the US or other Western countries may eventually grant them permission to use long-range missiles in Russia, and they just made the adjustments at that point,” they said.
“If this were to ever happen, it’s not going to have the military impact that Ukraine thinks it would, or that some voices out there think it would.”
Multiple former Conservative defence secretaries have written to the Telegraph urging Sir Keir Starmer to do more to help Ukraine. Sir Michael Fallon said: “It can’t be right to let Putin hit a children’s hospital with glide bombs from miles over the border, yet bar Ukraine from defending itself with long-range missiles like Storm Shadow.”
Sir Ben Wallace said: “Time and time again those that want to do nothing have used the ‘escalation’ excuse. They used it before the conflict, they used it when we supplied short-range anti-tank missiles, they used it when we supplied tanks.
“The reality is it is the appeasers that use this language and all the while Ukrainians suffer. Storm Shadows have been making a real difference in Crimea, which Russia already believes to be sovereign Russian territory, without escalation.”
A government spokesman said: “The Prime Minister has been clear that UK’s support for Ukraine is unwavering. That is why he committed to £3 billion a year of support to Ukraine, for as long as it takes, within his first week in office.
“Further lethal aid was also accelerated to Kyiv within hours of this Government being elected, bolstering the £12 billion of UK support already pledged, and ensuring the vital military equipment reaches Ukrainian soldiers on the front line.”
