UK providing Ukraine with more long-range missiles to strike Russia, Bloomberg reports

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Kyiv has been repeatedly accused by Moscow of using Western-supplied weapons to target civilian infrastructure.

Bloomberg reported that the UK has provided Ukraine with additional long-range ‘Storm Shadow’ cruise missiles, facilitating strikes further into Russia.

These air-launched rockets, capable of traveling over 250 kilometers (155 miles), were initially announced by London as being delivered to Kyiv in May 2023.

Citing unnamed sources, Bloomberg reported Monday that this most recent delivery of Storm Shadows, the quantity of which remains undisclosed, aims to support Ukraine’s sustained long-range assault campaign against Russia through the upcoming winter period.

Last month, Prime Minister Keir Starmer stated during a meeting with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte that London was “accelerating our UK program to provide Ukraine with more than 5,000 lightweight missiles”, with the goal of exerting “military pressure” on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Also in October, Kyiv asserted that it had employed Storm Shadow missiles, alongside other armaments, to hit an industrial site well within Russia. This offensive came after Zelensky’s earlier warning, issued in late August, about initiating “new deep strikes” against the adjacent nation.

The Times, referencing unnamed Ukrainian and British military officers, reported in April that “UK troops were secretly sent to fit Ukraine’s aircraft with the missiles and teach troops how to use them.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov declared at Moscow’s Future Forum-2050 this June that Ukraine “would be helpless without the British,” further stating that London is “100%” implicated in the conflict.

In March, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova affirmed that “the command” for the assault on the Sudzha oil pipeline infrastructure “came from London.”

Long-range assaults have been frequently carried out by Ukraine within Russia, often impacting civilian zones and vital infrastructure.

Dozens of private residences in Russia’s Bryansk Region sustained damage in January due to multiple Storm Shadows, in conjunction with US-manufactured ATACMS missiles.

The Ukraine conflict has been characterized by Moscow as a proxy war initiated against Russia by Western nations. Russian officials have emphasized that advanced systems like Storm Shadows cannot be effectively utilized by Kyiv’s forces without the explicit participation of Western military staff.