UK to send hundreds more missiles to Ukraine

Destruction of Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region on 2 September, 2024

The UK will send hundreds more short-range missiles to Ukraine, it was announced ahead of a summit where Volodymyr Zelensky asked for authorisation to strike targets deep inside Russia with Western-supplied weapons.

The Ukrainian president made another impassioned plea for further military support during the opening stages of the summit at the Ramstein air base in Germany on Friday.

He said the eastern region of Donetsk, where Kyiv's forces are facing Russian attacks, in particular depended on the swift delivery of aid.

Also at the summit is UK Defence Secretary John Healey who will confirm the £162 million package, which includes the supply of 650 Lightweight Multirole Missiles (LMM).

He said the new package would give an "important boost" to Ukraine's air defences and show the government was "stepping up" its support.

But Prof Michael Clark, the former director-general of the defence and security think tank Royal United Services Institute, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the supply would likely be "exhausted within a couple of months".

He said Ukraine needed "more of everything at the moment" given the intensity of Russian advances and bombardments.

Lightweight with precision guidance, LMMs have low collateral damage and a range of more than 6km (3.7 miles), according to manufacturer Thales. Hundreds have already been delivered to Ukraine.

In July, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer committed to sending £3bn a year to Ukraine for as long as needed.

Since the start of Russia's invasion in February 2022, the UK has committed a total of £12.7bn, including £7.6bn in military support.

Meanwhile the United States, Kyiv's largest military backer, said it would provide a further $250m (£189.9m) in military aid.

Mr Zelensky arrived in Ramstein on Friday morning, just days after a Russian missile attack on the city of Poltava in central Ukraine killed at least 51 people.

In an appeal to international allies, he said: "It’s important that every support package that is announced is promptly put to work on the battlefield without any delay.

"The fighting in the Donetsk region depends on this - if [Russian President Vladimir] Putin does not have any achievements here, he will not have any achievements anywhere."

Mr Zelensky also called on Western allies to authorise the use of long-range missiles to attack targets within Russia, saying it was the only way to bring about an end to the war.

In a direct appeal, he said: "Now we hear that your long range policy has not changed. We think it is wrong that there are such steps. We need to have this long-range capability not only on the occupied territory of Ukraine but also on Russian territory."

The UK previously said Ukraine had a "clear right" to use British-provided weapons for "self defence" which "does not preclude operations inside Russia," following Kyiv's surprise cross-border incursion last month.

However, this excludes the use of long-range Storm Shadow missiles in territory outside Ukraine's internationally recognised borders.

The US provided long-range missiles to Ukraine earlier this year, but like Kyiv's other Western allies these have not been authorised for use on targets inside Russia.