Kyiv to get go-ahead to strike deep into Russia

US could OK cruise missile attacks ‘within weeks’.

David Lammy and State Antony Blinken board a train in eastern Poland bound for Ukraine on Wednesday. Picture: Getty Images

Britain believes the US could within weeks allow Ukraine to use long-range cruise missiles against targets in Russia.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy will travel to Kyiv on Wednesday night for talks over the use of weapons, including British-made Storm Shadow missiles, in what would be a pivotal moment in the war between Russia and Ukraine.

The US has harboured deep reservations at granting Ukraine permission to use long-range missiles inside Russia because of fears of escalation.

It is particularly concerned that Russia could respond by deploying nuclear weapons.

British government sources, however, now believe there could be a shift in the US position before a gathering of world leaders at the UN in New York this month.

One Whitehall source suggested that parts of the US administration had changed their view but had yet to convince President Joe Biden and others.

CIA director Bill Burns suggested on a visit to London on Saturday that American thinking may be shifting.

Mr Blinken, Mr Lammy and President Volodymyr Zelensky will discuss the issue on Wednesday night. Mr Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are also likely to address the question when they meet in Washington on Friday.

Although Britain and France are thought to have been supportive of the use of long-range missiles inside Russia, the Ukrainians are waiting for US permission for technical reasons related to targeting, it is understood.

Britain has supplied Ukraine with Storm Shadow missiles, which have a range of about 250km, three times the range of the missiles Ukraine has used up to now, but it cannot use them to fire at targets inside Russia. The US has provided Ukraine with the longest-range version of ATACMS, a ballistic missile that can travel 350km, but again, the Ukrainians are restricted in their use.

Last week it emerged that Russia had received more than 200 ballistic missiles from Iran, which will allow Moscow to hit targets further inside Ukrainian territory, despite warnings from the West against such a move.

In London overnight on Tuesday, Mr Blinken called the Iranian move a “dramatic escalation” that would be met with new British, US and European sanctions on Tehran, including the banning of Iran Air passenger flights from British airspace.

Asked about the Ukrainian use of long-range weapons, Mr Blinken said he would ensure that Ukraine was able to be as “effective as possible in warding off Russian aggression”. He added that the US would “look and listen” to Mr Zelensky, who has repeatedly pushed for permission to use Western missiles to strike targets in Russia that Ukraine needs to destroy to protect its citizens.

The supply of Iranian short-range missiles would free Russia’s arsenal for use far beyond the frontline, Mr Blinken said, adding that Moscow was sharing nuclear technology with Iran in return.

“This development and the growing co-operation between Russia and Iran threatens European security and demonstrates how Iran’s destabilising influence reaches far beyond the Middle East,” Mr Blinken said.

British Defence Secretary John Healey faced pressure from MPs in the House of Commons over the Storm Shadow on Tuesday, although he refused to be drawn on the matter.

He said Russia was losing 1100 soldiers a day on the battlefield – double the casualty rate from this time last year – but he added that Moscow was recruiting or conscripting an additional 400,000 soldiers this year alone.

Mr Healey said the war was in a “critical moment”, with Russian artillery “out-firing Ukraine by at least three to one” and Ukraine witnessing some of the most intense air bombardments of the war. He said the longer Ukraine could hold the Russian territory of Kursk, the weaker President Vladimir Putin would become.

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