British-made Storm Shadow missiles have been fired at Russian targets by Ukraine for the first time following the US President’s decision to send anti-personnel mines to the front lines, as ITV News’ Geraint Vincent reports
Ukraine has hit Russia using UK-supplied Storm Shadow Missiles for the first time, according to reports.
The move comes after US President Joe Biden gave the go-ahead for Ukraine to use American long-range missiles to strike Russia on Sunday night.
Defence Secretary John Healey was asked about the use of Storm Shadow Missiles in Parliament, and did not deny the strikes had taken place.
“At this point I am not able to go into any further operational detail”, he told MPs.
Healey also reiterated: “We as a nation and as a government are doubling down on support and are determined to do more”.
The move by the UK comes after Starmer told a press conference at the G20 summit that Russia is using “irresponsible rhetoric”.
“There’s irresponsible rhetoric coming from Russia, and that is not going to deter our support for Ukraine”, the PM said.
Putin and his government responded to the US decision on long-range missiles saying it added “fuel to the fire”, then lowered the threshold at which Russian forces could use nuclear weapons on Tuesday morning.
Starmer refused to comment on “operational details” when asked about Storm Shadow missiles on Tuesday, telling ITV News’ Robert Peston that the only “winner in that would be Putin and it would undermine Ukraine”.
Ahead of Donald Trump returning to the White House in January, the US and the UK have been increasing military support for Ukraine.
The US government had been resistant to approve the use of long-range missiles for fear of escalating tensions with Russia, but the position appears to have shifted significantly after Trump won the election.
