US President Joe Biden meets with Sir Keir Starmer at the White House in Washington, 13 September 2024. Photo: EPA
US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer reaffirmed their “unwavering support” for Ukraine at a meeting in Washington on Friday, but did not signal that they had reached a decision on allowing Ukraine to use long-range missiles to strike targets inside Russia.
On the eve of the talks, The New York Times reported that Starmer was intending to convince Biden to allow Ukraine to use UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles to strike targets deep inside Russia, citing European officials, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed that lifting restrictions on the use of long-range weapons for Ukraine would be one of the topics being discussed at the meeting.
When asked by journalists whether he had convinced Biden to allow Ukraine to fire Storm Shadow missiles into Russia, the British prime minister said that he and Biden had had “a long and productive discussion on a number of areas, including Ukraine, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific region,” adding that their conversation had been strategic rather than tactical in nature, and had not been about reaching a “specific decision”.
In a press release the White House expressed its “deep concern about Iran and North Korea’s provision of lethal weapons to Russia”.
Storm Shadow missiles can hit targets up to 250 kilometres, meaning they could be used to strike deep into Russian territory. The missiles are powerful enough to damage military bunkers, ammunition stores and airfields, and can be precisely targeted.
Ukraine already has supplies of Storm Shadow missiles, but is restricted to firing them at targets within its own borders. Kyiv has been lobbying for months for these restrictions to be lifted so it can fire on targets inside Russia.
Vladimir Putin on Thursday warned that the use of Western weapons against targets deep inside Russia would mean NATO would be “at war” with Russia.
