Ukraine has used British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles in Russia for the first time, a Western official has confirmed.
The anonymous official revealed that 12 missiles were launched towards the Kursk region on Wednesday, Bloomberg reported.
Unconfirmed images and footage posted on X/Twitter show residents of the village of Marino, Kursk, stumbling upon fragments of the missile.
One image shows a resident holding a thick piece of broken metal in his hand, while another reveals a written indentation that reads: “Storm Shadow.”
Britain’s Storm Shadow missiles are capable of dodging air defenses, making them a nightmarish strike weapon for their enemy.
The £800,000 rockets use GPS technology to attack targets with precision and can travel through the air at 600mph.
British sources have described the historical development as “important”.
Ukraine has already used Storm Shadow missiles within its own territory for some time, but it now appears that kyiv has been granted permission to use the weapons to attack inside Russia.
Images shared on social media show what appear to be fragments of a British Storm Shadow missile in Marino, Kursk.
One image shows an indentation written on a piece of metal that reads: ‘Storm Shadow.’
The £800,000 rockets use GPS technology to attack targets with precision and can travel through the air at 600mph.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his office would not comment on reports or operational matters.
Britain had previously said Ukraine could use Storm Shadow cruise missiles inside Ukrainian territory, but the government has been pressing the United States to allow their use to strike targets inside Russia for several months.
Starmer hinted yesterday that Ukraine could use Storm Shadows while rejecting the Kremlin’s scare tactics.
Asked whether he would allow Ukraine to use British-made missiles, the prime minister said: “I have been doubling down on my clear message that we must ensure Ukraine has what it needs for as long as it takes to win this war against Putin.” .
‘I’m not going to go into operational details. You wouldn’t expect me to. The only winner would be Putin and that would undermine Ukraine.
‘The simplest way to end this conflict is for Russia to stop the aggression and do it today. We are on day 1,000 of that aggression.’
Storm Shadow, called Scalp by the French, is a weapon equipped with a navigation system that, once launched, descends to a low altitude to avoid detection before fixing its target using an infrared seeker.
On final approach, the missile climbs to a higher altitude to maximize its chances of hitting the target.
On impact, it penetrates the target before a delayed fuse detonates the main warhead.
Britain’s Storm Shadow missiles have a range of up to 180 miles, meaning Ukraine could now have the ability to strike targets inside Russia.
The UK first confirmed it would supply Ukraine with Storm Shadow missiles in May last year, for use in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory.
Then Defense Secretary Ben Wallace had trumpeted that weapons would give Ukraine the “best opportunity” to defend itself.
British Storm Shadow missiles are capable of dodging air defenses, making them a nightmarish strike weapon for your enemy.
It comes as Vladimir Putin’s TV propagandists called for Britain to be wiped out with nuclear weapons, amid earlier claims that Ukraine had used Storm Shadow missiles inside Russian territory.
One Kremlin spokesman proposed launching Russia’s Satan-2 missile, widely described as “the world’s deadliest weapon”, at Trafalgar Square, while another urged Putin to use the new Poseidon high-speed underwater drone and sink the UK. under a “radioactive tidal wave.”
This came just days after outgoing US President Joe Biden gave war-torn Ukraine permission to use long-range missiles to strike deep inside Russia earlier this week.
The decision was a major shift in U.S. policy and comes as Biden is about to leave office and President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to limit U.S. support for Ukraine and end the war as soon as possible.
The weapons are believed to be used in response to North Korea’s decision to send thousands of troops to Russia in support of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, according to one of the sources.
Around 10,000 soldiers from the communist regime have joined the fight to recapture Kursk, which Ukraine took in a daring counteroffensive last August.
Biden hopes this response will ‘send a message’ to Kim Jong Un not to send more, the sources said.
It comes just a day after Ukraine carried out its first attack on Russian territory with long-range missiles supplied by the United States.
US Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) seen in action
Joe Biden finally gave Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky permission over the weekend to use US-supplied missiles in attacks inside Russia.
A massive explosion at a munitions depot in Karachev, about 75 miles from the Ukrainian border in Russia’s Bryansk region, lit up the night sky yesterday morning on what was the 1,000th day of war in Ukraine.
Eyewitnesses along with Russian and Ukrainian military bloggers first reported the attack, and unnamed Ukrainian military officials later said that the attack was carried out with the American-made ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System).
Following the Ukrainian-led attack, and amid growing concerns about a possible World War III, European nations have begun preparing for all-out war on the continent as Putin officially lowered the threshold for Moscow to consider a nuclear attack.
Germany’s Foreign Minister promised yesterday that her country “will not be intimidated” by Putin, just a day after German media revealed that the nation will become a NATO theater if the conflict to the East escalates. .
According to a 1,000-page document titled “Operationsplan Deutschland,” Germany would host hundreds of thousands of troops from NATO countries and serve as a logistics hub to send huge amounts of military equipment, food and medicine to the front.
Finland reminded its citizens of their “national defense obligation” and recently launched a new information website, while Sweden presented a detailed guide on how to seek shelter and what to do in the event of a nuclear attack.
Snowflakes illuminate during the actual firing of the British Army’s new Archer Mobile Howitzer cannon near Rovaniemi in the Arctic Circle.
British Army soldiers and armored vehicles take part in exercises in the Arctic
A Swedish artillery team fires a projectile from an Archer self-propelled howitzer during NATO’s ‘Lightning Strike Exercise’ November 20, 2024 near Heinu, Finland. The live-fire exercise includes service members from 28 allied and partner nations and will take place Nov. 4-24 at locations in Finland, Estonia, Germany, Poland and Romania.
The United States is also willing to provide Ukraine’s military with shipments of landmines to slow the advance of Russian ground troops as Putin’s forces wear down Ukrainian defensive lines in Donetsk.
Officials in Washington confirmed last night that US antipersonnel mines would be sent to Ukraine on the condition that the punishment weapons would only be used to repel Russian attacks on Ukrainian territory.
Meanwhile, Nato is carrying out its biggest artillery exercise to date just 70 miles from the border, where the British Army is testing what military chiefs have described as a “game-changing” weapon.
Finland, which joined the military alliance last year, will receive up to 3,600 troops from 28 countries for the exercise, known as Dynamic Front.
The live-fire drills began Sunday in the northern region of Lapland and are part of a series of exercises, with more planned in Estonia, Germany, Romania and Poland.
The British Army is taking the opportunity to test its 155mm Archer cannons, weapons that can launch high-explosive projectiles or GPS-guided munitions and hit targets up to 30 miles away.