Whitehall rebuffs calls by Zelensky to make use of British missiles on Russia

The UK Government has rebuffed calls by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to use British missiles as part of its offensive into Russia.

Zelensky has claimed his counterattack into the Kursk region could finally topple the dictator Vladimir Putin as reports emerge that 100,000 Russians have fled.

Ukrainian forces are now in control of around 620 square miles of Kursk, located in southern Russia, according to Kyiv’s top general.

But Zelensky wants to use British Storm Shadow missiles, along with other long-range Western weapons, to strike deep inside Russia.

However, a UK government source has confirmed it has not changed its policy and is still denying the Ukrainian’s permission to use the weapons as part of the offensive.

‘There has been no change,’ a government source said. 

The decision comes despite Zelensky instructing diplomats to ‘present a list of necessary actions on our part to obtain permission from our partners to use long-range weapons to defend our territory’.

During a UK visit last month, Zelensky lobbied PM Sir Keir Starmer to lift restrictions on how the weapon, which has a range of about 250 kilometres, can be used.

Ukraine wants to use them to strike airfields and logistics hubs far beyond the front line that Moscow is using to reinforce its position in Kursk.

Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former British tank commander, told The Telegraph Storm Shadow missiles would be able to strike rail heads and key roads coming into Kursk, plus any airfields within 100 miles. 

He said: ‘Putin is rattled and this would show the West is fully committed to Ukraine, which has not been apparent hitherto.’

But the position on how to use the Storm Shadow missiles is not just the UK Government‘s to decide, as since the missile is manufactured with France they also have a say on conditions.

Kyiv has also asked the US for permission to use its Atacms long-range missile during the offensive, but that has also been refused so far. 

Although the West continues to deny Ukraine the long-range weapons it desires, the surprise Kursk offensive has still been delivering results. 

The surprising cross-border attack is the first foreign invasion of Russian soil since the Second World War. 

Kyiv has also shrugged off fears that the humiliated Putin may launch ‘hundreds’ of missiles in a violent bid for revenge. 

Military chief General Oleksandr Syrskyi confidently claimed Ukrainian troops are ‘fulfilling their tasks’ a week after the surprise offensive as he declared: ‘The situation is under our control.’ 

It will be another blow to an already embarrassed Putin with the despot leader still scrambling Russian forces to respond to the surprise Ukrainian attack after almost a week of fierce fighting. 

Kyiv troops have pushed 7.5 miles into the Kursk region across a 25 mile front and currently control 28 Russian settlements.

It comes as fighting continues to rage with Ukraine’s troops attempting to encircle the key gas transit hub of Sudzha, while other units forged a path to the town of Koronevo – just 35 miles from the Kursk nuclear power station (NPP).

Gen Syrskyi briefed Zelensky in a video posted on his Telegram channel. 

In the clip, he said: ‘The troops are fulfilling their tasks. Fighting continues actually along the entire front line. The situation is under our control.’

Mr Zelensky confirmed for the first time that Ukrainian military forces are operating inside the Kursk region.

On Telegram, he praised his country’s soldiers and commanders ‘for their steadfastness and decisive actions’.

Mr Zelensky did not elaborate. He also suggested that Ukraine would offer humanitarian assistance in the region.

Speaking at a meeting with top security and defence officials, Putin said the attack that began on August 6 appeared to reflect Kyiv’s attempt to gain a better negotiating position in possible future talks to end the war.

Putin argued that Ukraine may have hoped to cause public unrest in Russia with the attack, adding that it has failed to achieve that goal, and claimed that the number of volunteers to join the Russian military has increased because of the assault.

The president said the Russian military is driving on with its eastern Ukraine offensive regardless.

‘It’s obvious that the enemy will keep trying to destabilise the situation in the border zone to try to destabilise the domestic political situation in our country,’ Putin said.

In remarks broadcast this afternoon, Putin declared: ‘It is now clear why the Kyiv regime refused our proposals to return to a peaceful settlement plan.

‘To all appearances, the enemy, with the help of its Western masters, is doing their will. By the hands of the Ukrainians, the West is at war with us.

‘But what kind of negotiations can we even talk about with people who indiscriminately strike at civilians, at civilian infrastructure, or try to create threats to nuclear power facilities,’ the Russian president asked rhetorically.

Acting Kursk governor Alexei Smirnov said 12 civilians have been killed and 121 others, including 10 children, have been wounded in the operation.

About 121,000 people have been evacuated or left the areas affected by fighting on their own, he said.

Tracking down all the Ukrainian diversionary units roaming the region is difficult, Mr Smirnov said, noting that some are using fake Russian IDs.

The governor of the Belgorod region adjacent to Kursk also announced the evacuation of people from a district near the Ukrainian border, describing Monday morning as ‘alarming’ but giving no detail.

Ukrainian forces swiftly rolled into the town of Sudzha about 7.5 miles over the border after launching the attack.

They reportedly still hold the western part of the town, which is the site of an important natural gas transit station.

The Ukrainian operation is taking place under tight secrecy, and its goals – especially whether Kyiv’s forces aim to hold territory or are staging hit-and-run raids – remain unclear.

The stunning manoeuvre that caught the Kremlin’s forces unawares counters Russia’s unrelenting effort in recent months to punch through Ukrainian defences at selected points along the front line in eastern Ukraine.

Russia has seen previous incursions into its territory during the nearly two-and-a-half-year war, but the foray into the Kursk region marked the largest attack on its soil since the Second World War, constituting a milestone in the hostilities.

It is also the first time the Ukrainian army has spearheaded an incursion rather than pro-Ukraine Russian fighters.

The advance has delivered a blow to Mr Putin’s efforts to pretend that life in Russia has largely remained unaffected by the war.

State propaganda has tried to play down the attack, emphasising the authorities’ efforts to help residents of the region and seeking to distract attention from the military’s failure to prepare for the attack and quickly repel it.

Kursk residents recorded videos lamenting that they had to flee the border area, leaving behind their belongings, and pleading with Mr Putin for help.

But Russia’s state-controlled media kept a tight lid on any expression of discontent.

Retired general Andrei Gurulev, a member of the lower house of the Russian parliament, criticised the military for failing to properly protect the border.

‘Regrettably, the group of forces protecting the border didn’t have its own intelligence assets,’ he said on his messaging app channel.

‘No-one likes to see the truth in reports, everybody just wants to hear that all is good.’

The combat inside Russia rekindled questions about whether Ukraine was using weaponry supplied by Nato members.

Some Western countries have baulked at allowing Ukraine to use their military aid to hit Russian soil, fearing it would fuel an escalation that might drag Russia and Nato into war.

Though it is not clear what weapons Ukraine is using across the border, Russian media widely reported that US Bradley and German Marder armoured infantry vehicles were there.

It was not possible to independently verify that claim.

Ukraine has already used US weapons to strike inside Russia.

But Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani said in an interview published on Monday that the weapons provided by his country ‘cannot be used to attack Russia on its territory’.

Meanwhile, German Defence Ministry spokesperson Arne Collatz said on Monday that legal experts agree that ‘international law provides for a state that is defending itself also to defend itself on the territory of the attacker. That is clear from our point of view, too’.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Monday that reinforcements sent to the area backed by air force and artillery had fended off seven attacks by Ukrainian units near Martynovka, Borki and Korenevo during the previous 24 hours.

The ministry said Russian forces also blocked an attempt by Ukrainian mobile groups to forge deep into the Russian territory near Kauchuk.

Russian air force and artillery also struck concentrations of Ukrainian troops and equipment near Sudzha, Kurilovka, Pekhovo, Lyubimovo and several other settlements, it said.

Warplanes and artillery hit Kyiv’s reserves in Ukraine’s Sumy region across the border, it added.

Pasi Paroinen, an analyst with the Finland-based Black Bird Group open-source intelligence agency, which monitors the war, said the toughest phase of Ukraine’s incursion is likely to begin now as Russian reserves enter the fray.

Ukraine’s progress on Russian territory ‘is challenging the operational and strategic assumptions’ of the Kremlin’s forces, according to the Institute for the Study of War.

It could compel Russia to deploy more military assets to the long border between the two countries, the Washington-based think tank said in an assessment late on Sunday.

It described the Russian forces responding to the incursion as ‘hastily assembled and disparate’.