There is no confirmation that Washington approved the use of British Storm Shadow cruise missiles inside Russia as of noon (Kyiv time) Wednesday, Nov. 20.
Ukrainian news outlet RBC Ukraine, citing British news outlet The Times, reported Wednesday that “the US gave Ukraine the ‘green light’ to use British Storm Shadow missiles to strike deep into the Russian Federation” before adding that the UK has not officially confirmed the decision.
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However, upon evaluating The Times’ report, there was no confirmation that Washington gave its green light.
What did The Times say?
In a nutshell, the publication said British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was aware of Washington’s approval for Kyiv to use the ATACMS missiles in Russia three days before the news broke, that Kyiv’s use of Storm Shadows requires US approval, and that Starmer has been pushing for it before the scenes.
“Aides insisted that the US decision did not necessarily have a bearing on Storm Shadow as it has a different specification to the ATACMS system, while Starmer himself said that he was not going to get into ‘operational details,’” The Times’ report reads.
However, The Times goes on to say that senior government officials “hinted that the previous objections to the use of Storm Shadows by the Americans had now been dropped.”
The UK needs US approval to allow Kyiv’s deep strikes inside Russia using Storm Shadows because they contain US-provided components under Washington’s International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), as Kyiv Post reported earlier.
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Nowhere in The Times’ report did it state that the US approved the use of Storm Shadows against Russia – save for the “hints.”
That said, The Times did suggest, based on comments from various sources, that as per the tradition of Storm Shadow usage in Ukraine, one would only find out after they were fired into Russia.
What exactly did Starmer say?
Similar to what he said in July, Starmer said London will do what it can to ensure Ukraine can defend itself.
“We must ensure Ukraine has what it needs for as long as it needs to win this war … [But] I’m not going to go into operational matters, because there’s only one winner if I do that, and that is [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” he said on Tuesday morning.
If The Times insinuates from this statement that Starmer “[hinted] that it was just a matter of time before Storm Shadow missiles could be used in Ukraine,” then the claim seems unsubstantiated based on the statement and other evidence presented in the report.
The Times also writes that there was a “change of language” in Starmer’s statement, which “hinted that the previous objections to the use of Storm Shadows by the Americans had now been dropped.”
If this is true, it is unsubstantiated by the statements made by Starmer that are presented in the article.
Approval to use Storm Shadows deep inside Russia may be in place, but the latest reports are insufficient to substantiate such a claim.
Ukrainian media has been eager to report on the approval of Storm Shadow’s use in Russia. Many publications – Kyiv Post not among them – cited a report by Le Figaro newspaper in France Sunday as evidence that such permission had already been approved. Shortly thereafter, Le Figaro revised the text of its report to show that there’d been no official approval.
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