US blocks Ukraine from firing British missiles into Russia - The Times

UK government source says request sent to Washington more than a month ago to allow the Storm Shadow missile to be fired into Russia still awaits a reply.

Washington is effectively blocking Britain from allowing Kyiv to fire Storm Shadow missiles inside Russia, amid fears in the Biden administration of an escalation in the Ukraine war.

As pressure grows on the West to relax its rules around the use of long range weapons, Britain is waiting for US approval before it gives the Ukrainians the green light. However, the request went into the system more than a month ago and officials are still waiting, a UK government source said.

They said their understanding was that the topic was effectively “stuck in their system”. A second UK government source confirmed that “discussions were still ongoing” and a third defence source described it as “routine US process”.

It is understood that although the UK wants to give Ukraine the freedom to do what they want with the long-range weapon, it requires consensus from allies, including the US, France and a third undisclosed Nato country.

Storm Shadows can fire at targets more than 155 miles away and could be used to hit military bases deeper inside Russia that have been crucial for Moscow’s war effort inside Ukraine.

Sabrina Singh, the deputy spokeswoman for the US department of defence admitted in a briefing on Thursday that the US was “worried about escalation” when it came to Ukraine’s use of long range strikes.

She also suggested long range weapons were not needed to help Ukraine liberate its territory.

Matthew Palmer, chargé d’affaires of the US to the UK, in a Times Radio interview to be broadcast on Sunday, distanced himself from the notion that the US had any say in the matter, saying that the terms under which UK weapons could be used were a matter for London and Kyiv. “I’m not going to insert myself into that conversation,” he told Theo Usherwood.

One theory inside the UK military is that the US may be waiting to assess the impact or the consequences of the Ukrainian operation into Russia before making a decision, although they said they expected the matter to be quickly resolved.

A member of Ukraine’s defence committee told The Times that Ukraine had been forced to undertake its cross-border operation into Kursk due to the west’s refusal to allow Kyiv to use long-range cruise missiles on targets in Russia,

President Zelensky has repeatedly requested permission to use American-donated ATACMS and British Storm Shadows to strike targets deep within Russia, but each time has been rebuffed over fears that it could lead to an escalation in the conflict.

Solomiia Bobrovska, a Ukrainian MP, said that Russian gains made on the eastern front since the start of this year could have been stopped had Ukraine been able to use these weapons to destroy military and logistics targets deep behind the frontlines.
The assault on the Russian region of Kursk, now entering its 12th (AS OF SAT) day, she said, was a defensive action necessitated by Russia’s incremental but steady progress, and the continual aerial attacks on its civilians who live in cities close to the border, such as Sumy and Kharkiv.

Bobrovska last week returned from Washington where she was representing the Ukrainian parliament’s defence and security committee to press American senators and congressmen to allow for the use of ATACMS.
“If we had been allowed to use these long-range missiles in Russia, we would have been able to prevent a lot of their attacks and offensive operations,” she said. “And I truly believe that the map now would be like it was in 2023, or even better.”

She said that Britain and the US’s refusal to grant permission amounted to a “betrayal” of the security guarantees that Ukraine was given as part of the Budapest memorandum in 1994 in return for destroying the nuclear weapons left in the country following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
CONTINUES (1/2)