Putin escalating conflict, say western allies as missile approval moves closer

Britain and the US are on the verge of allowing Kyiv the use of weapons such as Storm Shadow missiles deep inside Russia in a major policy shift.

Britain and the United States are on the verge of allowing Ukraine to use long-range missiles against targets in Russia after accusing President Putin of “escalating” the conflict by accepting ballistic missiles from Iran.

David Lammy, the UK foreign secretary, and Anthony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said they would return to their respective countries to inform their leaders of the “operational details” surrounding Ukraine’s use of weapons such as Storm Shadow missiles after meeting President Zelensky in Kyiv.

Blinken promised to work quickly on Ukraine’s requests to ease the restrictions, saying he would take what he had learnt “back to President Biden”, as he spoke at a rare joint press conference alongside Lammy in the Ukrainian capital.

Biden and Sir Keir Starmer will meet in Washington on Friday when they will discuss the matter in a move that could pave the way for a major shift in policy.

The Times reported on Tuesday how British officials believed some parts of the US administration had recently changed their view but had yet to convince Biden and others, who were concerned about escalation.

UK government sources have suggested there could be a shift in the US position before world leaders gather at the UN headquarters in New York on September 22-23.

Before the press conference Lammy and Blinken met with Zelensky who had called for “strong decisions” to be made as he increased the pressure on the US to give Ukraine the freedom to hit targets across the border.

The pair blamed Putin for escalating the war after he accepted the delivery of the long-range Fath-360 missiles from Iran last week, with Blinken saying “if anyone is taking escalatory action, it would appear to be Mr Putin and Russia”.

The Times revealed last Friday how the shipment consisted of more than 200 missiles and they had arrived on a Russian ship at a port in the Caspian Sea on September 4. Lammy described Iran’s move to provide the ballistic missiles to Russia as a “significant and dangerous escalation”.

He also urged China not to join a “new axis of renegades” amid fears Beijing could accelerate its attempts to help Putin with his war in Ukraine.

“It is Putin who has escalated this week with the shipment of ballistic missiles from Iran and we’re seeing this new axis, Russia, Iran, North Korea. We urge China not to throw their lot in with this group of renegades,” Lammy said.

The delivery appeared to have shifted US thinking on whether to allow Ukraine to use its long-range weapons from the West to strike targets deep inside Russian territory. The US has been blocking the use of weapons such as the British-made Storm Shadow missiles inside Russia amid fears of escalation.

Pressure has mounted on the US and UK to change their policy on long-range weapons in recent weeks, with former top commanders in Europe and ex-ambassadors from the US adding their voices to the calls on Wednesday.

Britain has supplied Ukraine with Storm Shadow missiles, which have a range of about 155 miles, and the US has provided Ukraine with the longest-range version of the ATACMS – a ballistic missile – which can travel 190 miles.

In a letter to Blinken and Lammy, former government officials from the US and the UK urged them to lift restrictions on the weapons, saying “arbitrarily limiting” how Kyiv can use them made the donations “less impactful”.

Signatories including General Philip Breedlove, a former NATO supreme allied commander, and Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, the former commanding general for US army forces in Europe, warned that this winter would be the “worst yet” for the Ukrainians as they battled to keep the country running despite Moscow’s intensified bombings to destroy the Ukrainian energy grid and “freeze them in their homes”.

The Institute for the Study of War, an American think tank, has identified more than 200 Russian military and paramilitary targets that would be in the range of the Ukrainian ATACMS.

“It is far more cost-effective to destroy the archer rather than the arrow,” they said, adding: “Let Ukraine defend itself.”

The rare joint visit took place as Russia’s bigger and better-equipped army bore down on Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region and pounded the country with missiles, glide bombs and drones that claim many civilian casualties.

Lammy said the two-and-a-half-year conflict was at a “critical” juncture after Ukraine’s daring incursion last month into Russia’s Kursk region, even as it tries to defend against its neighbour’s aerial attacks on cities across the country.

Earlier in the day on Wednesday Ali Matinfar, Iran’s top diplomat in the UK, was summoned to the Foreign Office over accusations Tehran supplied more than 200 ballistic missiles to Russia for use in Ukraine.

Confirming the decision to summon Matinfar on Wednesday, a Foreign Office spokesman said the government had been clear that any transfer of ballistic missiles to Russia would be seen as a “dangerous escalation and would face a significant response”.

Military chiefs in the UK have previously warned that an “axis of upheaval” consisting of Russia, North Korea, Iran and China could all work together to help Moscow re-arm and take on the West.

On Tuesday Kurt Campbell, the US deputy secretary of state, said Beijing was giving Moscow “very substantial” help to beef up its war machine, with Russia handing over its military technology on submarines and missiles in return. So far Beijing has stopped short of supplying Russia with conventional weapons, however, it is something both the UK and the US are keeping a close eye on.

Britain’s foreign intelligence agency, MI6, and the US equivalent, the CIA, see the rise of China as the main intelligence and geopolitical challenge of the century.

THE TIMES