On Sunday, Britain's The Telegraph reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy "complained" his country wasn't getting the long-range weapons necessary, such as the United Kingdom's Storm Shadow missiles, to strike beyond Russia's red line — past its border.
"Unfortunately, the situation has slowed down recently," Zelenskyy said, referring to British support. "We will discuss how to fix this because long-range capabilities are vital for us. The whole world sees how effective Ukrainians are — how our entire nation defends its independence."
Ukraine's subtle shift in tactics moving from a defensive posture, defending its Western-recognized border, to an offensive one, striking inside Russia, took many leaders in the West by surprise a week and a half ago. Moreover, as this marks a stark new development in the war, Western politicians have been placed in the awkward position of softly denying Ukraine use of long-range weapon systems, all while still supporting the war effort.
On Saturday, Zelenskyy stated on X, "long-range capabilities are the answer" to "weakening" military supply chains inside Russia.
However, despite Ukraine's apparent access to long-range weapons such as the British Storm Shadow missile and, most recently, the U.S. F-16 fighter jet, one Biden administration official told The Telegraph that Ukraine had not been given the formal go-ahead by the U.S. to use them inside Russia's border.
Apprehensive that the use of such weapon systems ensnare the West in a hot war with Russia, one Pentagon spokesman on Thursday said that using the British missile to strike inside Russia would be an "escalation" provoking a response from one of the world's largest nuclear superpowers aimed at the West.
On Sunday, a spokeswoman for the British Ministry of Defense said that a ruling imposed by the previous conservative government denying Ukraine to use the British missiles inside Russia would stand — that there has been "no change in the U.K.'s position."