Britain becomes first Ukraine ally to supply long-range cruise missiles

Britain said it had started supplying Ukraine with cruise missiles capable of striking targets deep inside Russian-occupied territory, as a Moscow-backed warlord claimed Kyiv had already launched a big counteroffensive that is still officially in the planning stages.

“Today I can confirm that the UK is donating Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine,” UK defence secretary Ben Wallace announced on Thursday. He was referring to cruise missiles with a range of more than 250km – three times that of the US-made Himars rocket system that Kyiv’s military has used to target Russian command posts and supply depots far behind the front line.

“The donation of these weapons systems gives Ukraine the best chance to defend themselves against Russia’s continued brutality, especially the deliberate targeting of Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, which is against international law. Ukraine has a right to be able to defend itself against this,” he added.

Until now, the United States and other allies rejected Kyiv’s requests for such missiles, reportedly over fears that they could be fired at targets inside Russia, leading to a further escalation of a war that has already killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions in Ukraine.

Mr Wallace said the Storm Shadows would “allow Ukraine to push back Russian forces based within Ukrainian sovereign territory” – which includes the Crimea peninsula that Russia occupied in 2014 – and were “now going into, or are in, the country itself.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said London’s move would “demand an adequate response from our military, which naturally ... will take the appropriate decisions.”

Damage from a missile strike at an apartment in Chasiv Yar, a small town west of Bakhmut on Tuesday. Photograph: Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

Britain’s announcement came as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his country needed “a bit more time” to prepare for a counteroffensive that it hopes will bring swathes of eastern and southeastern territory back under Kyiv’s control.

“Mentally, we’re ready. In terms of how motivated our military are, we’re ready. In terms of enough personnel in our brigades, we’re ready. In terms of equipment, not everything has arrived yet,” he said in an interview with the BBC and other European public service broadcasters.

“We are still expecting some things, they will reinforce our counteroffensive and, most importantly, they will protect our people. We are expecting armoured vehicles,” he added. “We can advance with what we’ve got, and I think we can be successful, but we will lose a lot of people. I think that is unacceptable – we need to wait, we need a bit more time.”

Western states have provided Kyiv with billions of euro in weaponry – including tanks, air defence systems and Soviet-era fighter jets – and helped train some of thousands of new soldiers whose units will aim to combine the new arms to inflict a crushing blow on the Russian invasion force that launched an all-out attack on Ukraine in February 2022.

[ Russian evacuation orders: confusion, defiance and scarcity in occupied Ukraine ]

The front line has barely moved this year, as Ukrainian troops blocked Russia’s bid to take full control of the eastern Donbas area, where the road and rail hub of Bakhmut has been almost obliterated by months of heavy shelling and then street fighting.

Moscow’s attempt to occupy Bakhmut has been led by the Wagner mercenary group, whose leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is threatening to withdraw his fighters from the battle unless they receive more ammunition from Russia’s defence ministry.

“Zelenskiy is being cunning – the counteroffensive is in full swing,” he said of the Ukrainian president’s claim that his military was not yet ready to attack.

“In the [Bakhmut] direction, units of the Ukrainian armed forces go for the flanks. Unfortunately, in some places they are successful ... The Ukrainian military’s plan is under way,” he added.

“First they need to deal with the [Bakhmut] direction and then, with rising morale, they will go to other regions.”