Ukraine launches British cruise missiles into Russia

Kyiv: Ukraine fired a volley of British Storm Shadow cruise missiles into Russia on Wednesday, the latest new Western weapon it has been permitted to use on Russian targets, a day after it fired US-made ATACMS missiles.

The Biden administration also announced it would give Ukraine antipersonnel mines to help it slow Russia’s battlefield advances, marking the second major shift in US military support for Kyiv in days.

A British Storm Shadow missile in flight.Credit: MoD UK

The strikes by the British missiles were widely reported by Russian war correspondents on Telegram and confirmed by an official on condition of anonymity. A spokesperson for Ukraine’s General Staff said he had no information.

Moscow has said the use of Western weapons to strike Russian territory far from the border would be a major escalation in the conflict. Kyiv says it needs the capability to defend itself by hitting Russian rear bases used to support Moscow’s invasion, which entered its 1000th day this week.

Accounts of Russian war correspondents on Telegram posted videos they said included the sound of the missiles striking the Kursk region, which borders north-eastern Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin has altered its nuclear policy.Credit: AP

At least 14 huge explosions could be heard, most of them preceded by the sharp whistle of what sounded like an incoming missile. The video, shot in a residential area, showed black smoke rising in the distance.

The granting of US antipersonnel mines comes two months before Donald Trump replaces Joe Biden in the White House. Trump has pledged to swiftly end the war and has criticised the amount the US has spent on supporting Ukraine.

The mines are part of a $US275 million ($420 million) package of new military assistance that also includes High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, 155-millimetre and 105-millimetre artillery rounds, Javelin anti-armour munitions, and other equipment and spare parts.

Storm Shadow fragments as they appeared on the Russian Telegram channel, Two Majors.

Biden administration officials say they are determined to help Ukraine as much as possible before he leaves office, and they announced on Wednesday that the US intends to cancel half of Ukraine’s $US4.6 billion debt.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said US lawmakers were informed of the move this week and that he doesn’t expect them to pass a resolution of disapproval to try to stop the loan forgiveness because of the bipartisan support for Ukraine in the current Congress.

The US and some other Western embassies in Kyiv temporarily closed on Wednesday in response to the threat of a potentially major Russian aerial attack on the Ukrainian capital. The Spanish, Italian and Greek embassies also closed, but the UK government and France said their embassies remained open.

Russian response

The war has taken on a growing international dimension with the arrival of North Korean troops to help Russia on the battlefield – a development that US officials said prompted Biden’s policy shift on allowing Ukraine to target Russia with longer-range missiles.

The move has angered the Kremlin, with Russian President Vladimir Putin in response lowering the threshold for using his nuclear arsenal.

Russia’s new doctrine announced on Tuesday permits potential nuclear retaliation to a conventional attack by any nation supported by a nuclear power. That could potentially include Ukrainian strikes backed by the US.

Western leaders have dismissed Moscow’s reaction as an attempt to deter Ukraine’s allies from providing further support to Kyiv, but the escalating tension weighed on stock markets after Ukraine fired ATACMS missiles into Russia for the first time.

Reuters, AP

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.