United Kingdom giving Ukraine long-range missiles doesn’t change US stance, White House says
Mike Brest
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The United Kingdom’s decision to provide Ukraine with long-range missiles that will allow it to strike within Russian territory does not change the Biden administration’s stance against giving Kyiv the weaponry.
President Joe Biden has declined thus far to provide Ukraine with long-range missiles despite Kyiv’s repeated requests, while U.S. National Security Council coordinator John Kirby told reporters on Monday, “There’s been no change to our approach in terms of long-range missiles like ATACMS, no change to our policy on it.”
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The U.K. allowed last week that it would provide Ukraine with its Storm Shadow cruise missiles, which were designed for British and French warplanes but have been modified to be fired from Ukrainian MiG-29s. Their reported range of about 155 miles provides an extensive upgrade over the American HIMARS and other artillery that Western states have provided since last summer.
Ben Wallace, the British defense chief, declined to say how many of the Storm Shadows have been given to Ukraine.
These weapons will likely improve Ukraine’s odds in its highly anticipated counteroffensive that is expected to be launched in the coming weeks. Western nations have poured billions of dollars of military aid into Ukraine ahead of the offensive, though Biden has, at times, refused to provide Ukraine with certain systems that it believed would allow it to strike within Russia while also trying not to provoke Russia.
“The provision of these long-range weapons … will help the counteroffensive dramatically,” said former Ambassador Bill Taylor, who led the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv on two different tours. “So, this allows the Ukrainians to attack into — well into — Crimea. It also allows the Ukrainians to attack Russian targets well behind the lines into Donbas.”
Ukrainian leaders have tried to manage expectations ahead of the counteroffensive, in part out of a concern that a disappointing outcome could diminish the Western appetite to provide more aid.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters on Monday following his meeting with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at the Chequers estate in southeast England on Monday, “We really need some more time” before launching the offensive. “Not too much.”
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During the visit, Sunak announced that the U.K. would provide Ukraine with hundreds of air defense missiles and further unmanned aerial systems, including hundreds of new long-range attack drones with a range of over 120 miles, making it the first such missile in Ukraine’s arsenal. The U.K. will begin a new flight program this summer to train Ukrainian pilots “to handle different types of aircraft,” and it will work with the “U.K. efforts to work with other countries on providing F16 jets — Ukraine’s fighter jets of choice,” his office said in a statement.
Back in January, Colin Kahl, the undersecretary of defense for policy, told reporters that the Pentagon’s judgment “to date has been that the juice isn’t really worth the squeeze” when it comes to giving Ukraine ATACMS, surface-to-surface long-range missile systems.