Keir Starmer was under mounting pressure last night to ignore blood-curdling Kremlin rhetoric about nuclear war and let Ukraine fire UK-made ballistic missiles into Russia.
Former defence secretary Sir Ben Wallace led calls for Britain to step up support after Vladimir Putin’s mouthpieces said such a move risked ‘nuclear conflict by Christmas’.
On the eve of the 1,000th day of the conflict, which has cost more than a million lives, the United States lifted a ban on Ukraine firing its long-range missiles into Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hinted that retaliatory strikes at Russia could be imminent, saying: ‘Strikes are not carried out with words. Such things are not announced. Missiles will speak for themselves.’
But Downing Street refused to say if the UK will follow suit and allow Ukraine to fire powerful British Storm Shadow missiles at military targets inside Russia.
The capability has been a key demand from Ukraine for months, following the growing use by Moscow of devastating glide bombs dropped from aircraft flying deep inside Russian territory.
Sir Keir yesterday said shoring up military support for Ukraine before Donald Trump’s return to the White House was his ‘top priority’ for this week’s G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro.
A diplomatic source told the Mail that Sir Keir’s discomfort over the Storm Shadow issue is now so great that ministers have asked Ukraine to stop raising the issue in public.
Sir Keir Starmer is facing calls to allow Ukraine to fire UK-made ballistic missiles into Russia
Former defence secretary Sir Ben Wallace led voices urging Britain to step up its support for Ukraine in the face of blood-curdling Russian rhetoric
Vladimir Putin’s mouthpieces warned of ‘nuclear war by Christmas’ in response to Joe Biden’s widely reported but not confirmed move to allow American missiles to be fired at Russian targets
‘The only person that benefits from public discussion about this is Putin,’ the source said. ‘It makes the West look divided when we are not. And it makes it look as if the war depends on one missile system, which it does not. This is a point we have been making with the Ukrainians at all levels.’
No 10 declined to comment on reports that the US is continuing to block the use of Britain’s missiles against Russian targets.
Government sources said a planned meeting at the G20 today, at which the PM had planned to lobby Joe Biden for backing over the missiles, would not now take place. Asked about the crisis yesterday, the PM said: ‘I’m at the G20 with one message, which is that we must double down on our support for Ukraine.
‘Tomorrow is day 1000 of the conflict. That’s a thousand days of aggression from Russia and a thousand days of sacrifice from Ukraine. So that is my clear message here. It’s number one on my agenda. Obviously, I’m not going to get into operational details because the only winner, if we were to do that, is Putin and I’m not prepared to do that.’
President Biden’s decision – which has been widely reported but not confirmed on the record – to finally let Ukraine use American missiles against Russian targets followed the deployment of North Korean troops to aid Putin’s forces, which the West sees as a major escalation in the war.
But it triggered a furious and threatening response by the Kremlin yesterday. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed President Biden was ‘throwing fuel on the flames’ of the conflict.
In an interview on Radio 4’s The World At One, a former Putin spokesman, Sergey Markov, went much further. He said: ‘This is not a small step to nuclear conflict but a big jump. This is the war that you started. I think it is extremely dangerous.
‘I think Biden, Macron and Starmer want escalation which could lead to, from my understanding, in the worst scenario, nuclear war happening before Christmas this year.’
It was also condemned by the son of US President-Elect Donald Trump who suggested the West wanted to start ‘World War 3’ before his father has the chance to ‘make peace and save lives’.
But Sir Ben, who led the UK’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, insisted: ‘Russia talks about escalation but it has escalated the conflict by recruiting North Korean soldiers and using Iranian drones.
‘Russia must also not be permitted to succeed by dividing the international community or by taking over a sovereign state.
‘Also, this is not about providing Ukraine with a major strategic strike capability.
‘Instead it is about targeting key Russian military infrastructure which in some cases is only a few kilometres inside its territory.’
Former UK military intelligence officer Phil Ingram told the Mail last night that Sir Keir Starmer was ‘too cautious’.
He said: ‘We should 100 per cent be granting Ukraine approval to use Storm Shadows. If Boris Johnson had remained as Prime Minister this would not be an issue as he would have given permission and taken the consequences, unlike our current Prime Minister.’
Since 2022, the US has blocked Ukrainian pleas for permission to use American, British and French long-range missiles against Kremlin military targets inside Russia.
A Storm Shadow/Scalp EG missile system used by a Eurofighter Typhoon
These have a range of between 200 and 300 miles and are very accurate. But they are also prohibitively expensive and Britain’s stocks of Storm Shadow missiles are understood to be low.
Following Russia’s recruitment of 10,000 North Korean troops – and after Donald Trump’s victory in the US Presidential election – Biden has finally been persuaded to change his stance.
Soldiers provided by Pyongyang are expected to lead a counter-offensive to capture territory seized by Kyiv in the southern Russian region of Kursk.
According to UK security sources, it is imperative Ukraine retains the territory in Kursk before any peace talks with the Kremlin. This is so the return of this land can be leveraged against Russia giving up the Ukrainian sovereign territory it has captured.
Western ballistic missiles could be fired into Kursk, destroying Russian airstrips, drone assembly facilities and military headquarters.
Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine has led to more than 700,000 Russian casualties, either dead or wounded.
Ukraine is also understood to have lost hundreds of thousands of troops, but it does not share its casualty figures.
Supporters of US President-Elect Donald Trump have argued that Ukraine should accept a land sacrifice as part of a peace deal.
A handout photo released by the press service of the State Emergency Service (SES) of Ukraine shows Ukrainian rescuers working at the site of an air strike in Lviv, western Ukraine, November 17, 2024
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian rocket attack in Poltava region Ukraine, November 17, 2024
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out the fire following a Russian rocket attack in Odesa region Ukraine, Sunday, November 17, 2024
Trump has also claimed he could end the conflict in a day once he is in office. He maintained a rare silence yesterday but his son, Donald Trump Jnr launched a breathtaking attack on President Biden.
Trump Jnr labelled US officials behind the policy shift ‘imbeciles’ and suggested the move was led by the US’s ‘military industrial complex’ which makes billions of dollars from supplying equipment.
It is possible that President-Elect Trump could reverse President Biden’s decision as soon as January.
He would also be able to suspend Ukraine’s use of Storm Shadow and French SCALP as these missiles include US components and require US satellite guidance.
Britain is also pushing President Biden to release £17billion in promised loans to Ukraine before Mr Trump returns to the White House.