The UK has supplied Ukraine with more Storm Shadow missiles, which are air-launched and have a range of 155 miles, for strikes inside Russian territory, Bloomberg reported on Monday.
The report came about two weeks after the Ukrainian military claimed an attack on a Russian chemical plant using Storm Shadows, which signaled the US was again backing Ukrainian missile strikes on Russian territory since the British-made missiles require US targeting data to be fired.
Ukraine first began firing Storm Shadow missiles into Russia last year, which coincided with the Biden administration giving it the green light to use US-provided ATACMS missiles in strikes on Russian territory. At the time, Russia responded by altering its nuclear doctrine to lower the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, making it clear that the US-backed missile strikes risk a major escalation from Moscow.
It’s unclear how many Storm Shadows or ATACMS Ukraine currently has, and the Bloomberg report didn’t specify how many Storm Shadows the UK has recently supplied. The US has also been backing long-range Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian territory, according to a report from the Financial Times.
The news about the Storm Shadow supply comes as President Trump has once again said that he doesn’t plan on providing Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles, at least for now. Sending Tomahawks would mark a huge escalation of the proxy war since they have a range of over 1,000 miles and are nuclear-capable.
CNN reported on Friday that the Pentagon gave the White House the green light to send Tomahawks to Ukraine if it chooses to, because it determined doing so wouldn’t negatively impact the US military’s stockpiles.
