Ukraine begs to make use of British Storm Shadow missiles in Russia

Ukraine has asked Keir Starmer for permission to use British-donated missiles to ‘turn the tide of the war’ against Russia.

Kyiv would use the long-range missiles to target Russian supply lines, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told The Telegraph.

If Britain were to loosen the restriction on the so-called Storm Shadow missiles, Ukraine would be able to increase the intensity of their strikes on Russian territory, potentially speeding up the end of the war.

Yesterday Zelensky said his forces were ‘strengthening’ their positions in Russia‘s Kursk region, where Kyiv has been mounting a major ground offensive for more than 11 days.

Ukraine’s forthright appeal to the British could help to strengthen their position further.

Defence Secretary John Healey said the UK ‘should be proud’ of British weapons being used by Ukraine.

Mr Healey said Ukraine’s right to self-defence includes carrying out operations inside Russia, as long as they are compliant with international law.

He said: ‘After just six weeks as Britain’s Defence Secretary, I am more certain than ever that the defence of the UK – and of Europe – starts in Ukraine.

‘Because if Putin succeeds in Ukraine, he will not stop there, and others like him will be emboldened.

‘So we will stand by our brave Ukrainian friends for as long as it takes. Britain is united for Ukraine.

‘We will not step back at this critical moment.’

The UK has pledged around £12.5 billion in support to Ukraine since February 2022, of which £7.6 billion was for military assistance, including £3 billion for 2024/25. 

‘As of this morning, we have replenished the exchange fund for our country,’ Zelensky said, referring to Russian soldiers Ukraine has captured to be used in future prisoner swaps.

‘I thank all the soldiers and commanders who are taking Russian soldiers prisoner and thus bringing the release of our soldiers and civilians held by Russia closer,’ Zelensky said.

‘The operation is proceeding exactly as we expected,’ the Ukrainian leader later said in his evening address. 

One such captured Kremlin soldier is Fyodor Smakilo, 22, who was only drafted eight months ago for a year’s worth of compulsory military service.

But now Smakilo has found himself in a prison cell along with 14 other Russian soldiers.

The young man told The Times: ‘It was like something from the Second World War. Our commander shouted at us, ‘No retreat”.

Smakilo is one of several hundred prisoners Ukraine claims to have captured in its raid of Russia’s Kursk region.

Kyiv claims to have taken control of more than 80 settlements including the key town of Sudzha in its lightning incursion, which caught the Kremlin off guard almost two and a half years into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian defence ministry said on Saturday it had pushed back Ukrainian forces near three settlements in the Kursk region, and was searching for ‘mobile enemy groups’ trying to pierce deeper into the country.

While the incursion has delivered a major morale boost to Kyiv, it appears to have had little impact on the larger battles raging in Russian-occupied parts of eastern Ukraine.

Zelensky said on Saturday there had been ‘dozens of Russian assaults’ on Ukrainian positions near the towns of Pokrovsk and Toretsk, where Moscow has made a string of advances in recent weeks.

‘Our soldiers and units are doing everything to destroy the occupier and repel the attacks,’ Zelensky said, stressing the situation was ‘under control’.

Ukraine’s largest direct bank Monobank has been the target of a two-day cyber-attack, reported Ukranian media.

The bank’s co-owner Oleh Horokhovskyi did not identify a culprit, though previous threats have been linked to Russian hackers.

On Friday Russia said its forces had captured another village near Pokrovsk, a Ukrainian-held logistics hub that lies on a road supplying troops and towns across the eastern front.

Russian officials on Friday accused Ukraine of striking a strategically important bridge just a couple dozen kilometres away from fighting in the Kursk region.

An aerial video published by Ukrainian air force commander Mykola Oleshchuk appeared to show the bridge being hit by a projectile at high speed before collapsing in a cloud of smoke.

Russia also accused Ukraine on Saturday of dropping an explosive charge on a road near the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.

An explosive, carried by a drone, detonated just outside of the protected area of the plant, which is the largest nuclear facility in Europe.

There was no confirmation as to who was responsible.

The impact site was close to the essential cooling ponds and about 100 metres from the Dniprovska power line, the only remaining 750 kilovolt line providing a power supply to the plant. 

Rafael Grossi, who heads up the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), expressed his alarm at the latest incident.

‘I am extremely concerned and reiterate my call for maximum restraint from all sides,’ he said.

Russia’s defence ministry said that Ukraine is planning to strike the plant and use dirty bombs to scatter radioactive waste, and then blame this on Moscow.

But Kyiv dismissed the claims as ‘insane’ propaganda.

Last night, security expert Philip Ingram said: ‘What Russia may try to do is create a disaster at the nuclear power plant itself, with some sort of radiation leak and then blame it on Ukraine.’

General Sir Richard Shirreff, a retired British Army officer, said: ‘The Russians want the Ukrainians to stop. They have been humiliated, so of course they are going to start screaming about the plant.’

Meanwhile Ramzan Kadyrov posted a video of himself test-driving the Tesla Cybertruck – a futuristic vehicle worth around £145,000.

The Head of the Chechen Republic heaped praise on Tesla CEO Elon Musk, calling him the ‘strongest genius of modern times’ and inviting him to Chechnya.

The 47-year-old warlord takes the Tesla for a spin around his ‘palace-style’ mansion in Chechnya’s capital of Grozny. A machine gun sits comfortably on its roof as Kadyrov wears bullets around his neck. 

Kadyrov was appointed by Putin a Colonel-General in the Russian national guard, and he also holds the Kremlin’s highest award of Hero of Russia.

The Russian authorities have turned a blind eye to extra-judicial killings, including some outside the country, as Kadyrov roots out opposition to his iron-fist rule.

Kadyrov appears to have recovered from an illness last year that was widely seen as being a kidney problem.

Some reports suggested he had been poisoned.