Russia threatens Britain with ‘an adequate response from our military’ after UK agrees to supply Ukraine with Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles
- Britain agreed to supply Ukraine with £2.2m Storm Shadow long-range missiles
- The missiles would allow Ukraine to hit Russian troops deep behind front line
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 Western officials told CNN that the UK has now supplied Ukraine with the missile, prompting a furious response from the Kremlin.
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)
Pictured: A graphic showing how the Storm Shadow Missiles would work on the battlefield
‘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 Western official said.
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
‘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’, while the UK ministry of defence declined to comment.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Last week, a British-led group of European countries asked companies for expressions of interest to supply Ukraine with missiles with a range of up to 300 km (190 miles), but Britain said on Tuesday that no final decision had been taken on supplying the weapons.
The capabilities specified in that notice are in line with Storm Shadow missiles, manufactured by European missile maker MBDA.
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.
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’.
