Ukraine uses Storm Shadow in Russia for the first time

War in Ukraine

Media: Ukraine uses Storm Shadow in Russia for the first time

Just a few days ago, the USA allowed Ukraine to use long-range weapons against targets on Russian territory. Now it looks as if the British have followed suit. But London is silent.

According to British media reports, Ukraine has fired Storm Shadow cruise missiles supplied from Great Britain at targets in Russia for the first time. This was reported by the Financial Times and the Guardian, among others, citing unnamed insider sources.

The British Ministry of Defense did not want to comment on the reports when asked by dpa. The government in London has always been evasive about the conditions for Ukraine’s Storm Shadow deployment to defend itself against the Russian attackers.

The Telegraph reported that debris from the cruise missile was found in the town of Marjino in Russia’s Kursk region, almost 45 kilometers from the border. The governor of Kursk, Alexei Smirnov, said on the short message service Telegram that two rockets had been fired. But he didn’t give any details.

Only recently, according to media reports, the USA allowed Ukraine to use longer-range missiles made by the US against targets in Russia. According to Moscow, Ukraine fired six ATACMS missiles into Russian territory.

The British Storm Shadow is an air-launched cruise missile with a range of more than 250 kilometers for precision strikes on targets such as bunkers or critical infrastructure. They are identical in construction to the French Scalp missiles.

Ukraine is defending itself against a war of aggression by Russia for the third year. President Volodymyr Zelensky has long been asking Western partners to be able to use more extensive weapons on Russian territory. The reason given was that this was crucial for the course of the war.

The US release is seen as a response to Moscow’s suspected use of North Korean soldiers. Russia, in turn, sees the US weapons as an escalation and an involvement of the US and other Western states in the war.