The UK will send its first long-range missiles to Ukraine after Russia struck the outskirts of Kiev for the first time since April on Sunday, news agency MIA transmits.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said Britain would send an unspecified number of M270 launchers, which can fire precision-guided rockets up to 80 kilometres – a longer range than any missile technology currently being used in the war.
“The UK stands with Ukraine in this fight and is taking a leading role in supplying its heroic troops with the vital weapons they need to defend their country from unprovoked invasion,” Wallace said in a statement issued by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
“If the international community continues its support, I believe Ukraine can win.
“As Russia’s tactics change, so must our support to Ukraine. These highly capable multiple-launch rocket systems will enable our Ukrainian friends to better protect themselves against the brutal use of long-range artillery, which Putin’s forces have used indiscriminately to flatten cities.”
Ukrainian troops will be trained in the UK to use the equipment, he added. The MoD said the decision to provide the launchers was closely co-ordinated with the US government, which said that it would supply High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems to Ukraine.
When the US announced it would be sending the missiles, Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to hit new targets. “If they are delivered, we will draw appropriate conclusions from this and use our weapons, which we have enough of, to strike at those objects that we have not yet hit,” he said in an interview recorded on Friday with state TV channel Rossiya-1. Kiev’s residents awoke on Sunday to the first Russian strikes on the capital since April 28, while Moscow’s forces have also maintained steady pressure via artillery and air strikes in the eastern Donbass region.
