New U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer signaled that Ukraine could use Storm Shadow long-range missiles to hit military targets inside Russia, Bloomberg reported on July 10.
Starmer outlined his position, saying that it is up to Ukraine how to use British missiles. His remarks echoed the words of former U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron.
Cameron said in early May that Kyiv had the right to use the weapons provided by London to strike targets on Russian soil. The Kyiv Independent's source in the president's office disputed the statement, saying that there was no green light from the U.K. at that time.
The missiles are "obviously to be used in accordance with international humanitarian law" and "for defensive purposes," but "it is for Ukraine to decide how to deploy (them) for those defensive purposes," the prime minister said during the NATO summit in Washington.
Ukraine has reportedly used U.K.-supplied Storm Shadow missiles, with a range of up to 250 kilometers (150 miles), to hit Russian military targets in Crimea, a sovereign Ukrainian territory illegally annexed by Russia.
When Russia launched its intensified offensive against Kharkiv Oblast in May, a number of countries said they had lifted restrictions on the use of Western-provided weapons against military targets inside Russia.
The U.S. granted Kyiv limited permission to use certain American weapons to strike Russian targets near the region's border.
President Volodymyr Zelensky keeps urging Washington to allow Ukraine to hit targets deep inside Russia, including military aircraft stationed on bases.
"And we can significantly limit Russian actions in southern Ukraine and push the occupier out of there if American leadership assists us with the necessary deep-strike capabilities against the Russian military and logistics in our Ukrainian Crimea," he said on July 10.
Olena Goncharova
