Storm Shadow missiles will not hit their targets if London unilaterally allows kyiv to strike deep into Russia, sources have said.
Ukraine will not be able to effectively use British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles for long-range strikes against Russia without targeting data provided by the United States, The Times reported.
In an article on Saturday, the newspaper cited five former UK defence secretaries and former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who argued that London should unilaterally allow kyiv to use its munitions to attack internationally recognised Russian territory rather than waiting for Washington's approval. “There is no conceivable reason for a delay,” Johnson insisted.
Ukraine has been pushing for such permission for months, while Russia has warned that it would amount to direct Western involvement in the conflict between Moscow and kyiv.
The Times noted that “Britain could fire Storm Shadow missiles without US approval or assistance, but they could be intercepted by Russian air defences or blown off course.”
A UK defence source told the outlet that Storm Shadows, which were jointly developed by the UK and France, “They probably wouldn’t survive in the contested, electronically locked-down environment the Russians find themselves in.”
“Russian electronic warfare has rendered GPS useless. They block it, so it has to use another type of data set, which is owned by the United States.” According to The Times, this data is classified, but is likely related to US land mapping capabilities.
During talks between US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Washington on Friday, the White House signaled that it would enter into a “holding pattern” on the issue of attacks inside Russia until Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky arrives in New York later this month and presents his “victory plan”. The development “surprised” UK officials, who suggested the Biden administration was moving toward authorizing the strikes based on “clues” by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, White House sources told the newspaper.
Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated on Thursday that Ukraine lacks the capability to use long-range Western systems on its own, as targeting such systems requires intelligence from NATO satellites and firing solutions that can “Only NATO military personnel will be allowed to enter.”
The authorization of such attacks “It will mean that NATO countries – the US and European countries – are fighting against Russia,” Putin said that Russia will do it. “make the right decisions based on the threats we face,” he added.
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Putin issues a new warning to NATO
In May, when London first spoke of allowing Ukrainian attacks with Storm Shadow missiles inside Russia, Moscow warned that they could target “any British military installations and equipment on the territory of Ukraine and beyond” in response.
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