Sir Keir Starmer has told the Ukrainian president that British missiles can be used for defensive strikes against targets inside Russia.

The announcement came as the new British prime minister met Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the NATO summit in Washington DC on Wednesday.

The decision over the Storm Shadow missiles, which has been welcomed by Ukraine, represents a hawkish shift in policy from the stance taken by the former Conservative government.

In a post on X after the meeting with Sir Keir, President Zelenskyy said: "This morning, I learned about the permission to use Storm Shadow miss­iles against military targets in Russian territory.

“Today we had the opportunity to discuss the practical implementation of this decision. I’m grateful to the UK for its unwavering support for Ukraine and our people.”

However, reacting to the news, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said: “If this is so then, of course, this is another absolutely irresponsible step towards escalating tensions and seriously escalating the situation.”

Dimitry Peskov told Reuters: “We will be watching this very thoroughly and respond accordingly.”

  • kbal@fedia.io
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    4 months ago

    Regardless of how much or how little support one wants to give Ukraine (Slava Ukraini!) it always struck me as bizarre that people thought it reasonable to give them missiles and then expect them not to use those missiles against the country they’re at war with.

    • RobotToaster@mander.xyz
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      4 months ago

      The USA gave the Afghan mujahideen stinger missiles expecting them to only be used against Russia, people have short memories.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        4 months ago

        The situation is a bit different though. Ukraine wants to maintain good relations with the West. In Afghanistan they didn’t care.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      4 months ago

      A lot of the European countries are just very cautious about starting another war. Partly because of the obvious implications of that but also partly because they were never utterly convinced that their populations would be behind it.

      As it has turned out mostly there is broad support for escalating the conflict as people are appalled by what Russia is doing. So governments are increasingly willing to allow the use of weapons. It also helps that Russia has demonstrated themselves to be completely useless. Rather ensuring that they won’t actually be any escalations because Russia wouldn’t be able to actually make good on their threats.

  • katy ✨@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    4 months ago

    it’s wild how he’s so fully in support of helping ukraine but so against helping gaza when the two countries are literally in the same situation.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    4 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Signalling the move, but declining to get into “operational arrangements”, John Healey, the new defence secretary, told Sky News that Britain “will do all we can to help Ukraine in their fight to repel Putin’s invasion”.

    Speaking in Washington, Mr Healey said: “We provide weapons equipment where we can for them to defend themselves, and as we do for ourselves and any other nation in conflict, we require, because it’s international law, that war is conducted within those rules of the Geneva Convention.”

    In a post on X after the meeting with Sir Keir, President Zelenskyy said: "This morning, I learned about the permission to use Storm Shadow miss­iles against military targets in Russian territory.

    In a lengthy declaration, the alliance’s members announced that Ukraine was on an “irreversible” path to NATO membership, with wording important to the Ukrainian government, but likely to agitate Moscow.

    Privately, Washington-based European diplomats are more candid, saying that the existing but gradual rebalancing of NATO’s power could morph into a brutal shift away from US dominance of the alliance in a Trump second term.

    Today, Senate Democrats will have lunch with top Biden advisers Mike Donilon and Steve Ricchetti, as well as the Biden-Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon.


    The original article contains 848 words, the summary contains 205 words. Saved 76%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

      • rmuk@feddit.uk
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        4 months ago

        Is this why you wouldn’t turn off the lights earlier? Because you’re commenting on Lemmy?

        • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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          4 months ago

          Well the absolute flaming hell are you on about. Whenever you make a comment, maybe think about it first and like check that it makes some sort of coherent sense

    • CascadeOfLight [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      4 months ago

      What do you mean? Now the brave Ukrainian resistance can use those Schutz Staffel Storm Shadows or whatever the fuck to not only blow up grocery stores in downtown Donetsk, but also blow up grocery stores in downtown Belgorod too!