Report: Britain delivers long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine

The United Kingdom has delivered long-range cruise missiles for Ukraine as the country prepares for a counteroffensive against Russia.

According to reports, the UK delivered long-range ‘Storm Shadow’ cruise missiles to Ukraine. A Western official told CNN, “The UK has previously said that it will supply Ukraine with long-range weapons, this will now include a number of Storm Shadow missiles. The British Government has been clear that this is only in response to Russia’s deliberate targeting of civilian national infrastructure and is a proportionate response.”

Launched from the air, Storm Shadow was jointly developed by UK and France and has a firing range of over 250 kilometres. According to reports, Storm Shadow has the capability to strike within Russian territory. However, the UK has reportedly received assurances from Ukraine that the missiles would be used only within Ukraine’s territory.

The UK was one of the first countries to pledge supply of military tanks to Ukraine. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged the supply of Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine, following which the US agreed to send Abrams tanks, and Germany and a group of European countries agreed to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday said Ukraine needs more time before it can launch an offensive against Russia. “With (what we have) we can go forward and be successful,” he said in an interview with BBC. “But we’d lose a lot of people. I think that’s unacceptable. So we need to wait. We still need a bit more time,” he added.

However, Moscow said they would respond adequately to reports of Britain supplying missiles to Ukraine. Reuters quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that it would require “an adequate response from our military.”