Starmer: Ukraine can use British missiles to launch attacks inside Russia

Keir Starmer suggested that Ukraine could use British Storm Shadow missiles to attack military targets in Russia, confirming that he would continue the previous British government’s policy of using British long-range weapons in the Russian-Ukrainian war.

When asked by a Bloomberg reporter, Starmer agreed that it was up to Ukraine how it used the Storm Shadow missiles donated by Britain. He spoke to reporters late Tuesday en route to the NATO summit in Washington.

The use of the missiles must “of course be in accordance with international humanitarian law, as one would expect,” the prime minister added, reiterating his position that Storm Shadows should be used “for defensive purposes.”

“But it is Ukraine’s decision how to use these missiles for defensive purposes,” he said. Storm Shadows are precision-guided cruise missiles with a range of over 250 kilometers.

Ukraine has said it must attack military targets in Russia to defend itself and repel Russian attacks, saying this is one of the main topics of the NATO summit.

Some European countries, such as Britain, have expressed support for Ukraine’s position, but the US government has so far refused to lift any restrictions on Kiev’s use of its weapons. The Biden administration says it has not allowed Ukrainian attacks deep inside Russia because it sees this as a red line to prevent escalation with Moscow.

With these comments, Starmer is committing to this policy for the first time under his new government after winning the British general election last week.

They echo the words of Rishi Sunak’s government, which never explicitly said that Ukraine could use Storm Shadows to launch attacks inside Russia, but implied this by saying it was up to Kyiv how it would use the missiles, a statement the Kremlin called “a very dangerous statement” at the time.

“Keir Starmer has given President Zelensky a boost,” Jamie Shea, a former NATO official and now an associate fellow at Chatham House, told Bloomberg Radio on Wednesday. The Ukrainians “have to be able to strike back at these significant Russian military targets – but not Russian civilian targets, of course. I think Keir Starmer and other NATO leaders will draw a red line here, the strikes have to be against the real military targets.”

Responding to Russia’s attack on a hospital in Ukraine, Starmer said it was an “absolutely shocking, horrific attack” that provided “a very important, if tragic, backdrop to this summit.” He added: “It is everyone’s duty to describe it in those terms.”

“My message to President Putin is that this NATO summit should be seen as a clear and shared determination by NATO Allies and other states present there to stand with Ukraine and confront Russian aggression,” Starmer said.