UK to send long-range missiles to Ukraine

The UK is poised to send long-range missiles to help Kyiv, ahead of a major counter-offensive by Ukrainian forces expected in the coming weeks.

In a procurement notice dated 2 May by the British-led International Fund for Ukraine (IFU), the Ministry of Defence asked for “expressions of interest” in providing strike capabilities with a range of up to 200 miles (300km). According to The Washington Post, “no final decision has been made”, but the notice is “a substantive step” for the UK, “which has prided itself on being ahead of its Western allies in introducing new weapons systems to Ukraine”.

Rishi Sunak pledged to send long-range missiles to Kyiv during a visit by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the UK in February. The prime minister has also been urging Western partners to follow suit, despite opposition from the Joe Biden administration amid fears that the missiles could be used to fire at targets within Russia, risking a major escalation of the war.

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Ukraine has insisted that long-range weapons “could change the course of the war by enabling Ukrainian forces to strike Russian command posts, supply lines, ammunition and fuel depots deep inside Crimea and in the temporarily occupied territories in the east of Ukraine”, Yahoo News reported.

Zelenskyy has made the delivery of longer-range weapons a “priority”, said The Telegraph. Analysts told the paper that British long-range missiles “would give Ukraine the ability to disrupt Russian logistical chains and push its naval forces more than 80 miles from the coast”.

The new initiative by the International Fund for Ukraine – run by the UK working with six other European countries – to provide such missiles comes at a key moment, As Ukraine gears up to launch a counter-offensive against Russian forces, CNN reported that the US-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), “which has been perhaps the most revered and feared piece of weaponry in Ukraine’s fight”, has in recent months “been rendered increasingly less effective by the Russians’ intensive blocking”.