The UK’s willingness to share classified missile-production knowledge sets a potentially important precedent.
The United Kingdom is set to share classified weapons information with Ukraine to enable it to produce its own version of the Storm Shadow long-range cruise missile, designed jointly with France, as Prime Minister Andy Burnham visits Kyiv on his first foreign trip as the UK’s prime minister.
Burnham’s trip on Monday, timed to coincide with Ukraine’s 35th anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union, is the latest show of support on the part of the UK and Ukraine’s other European allies at a time when backing from the United States has been erratic, analysts said.
Burnham described Russia’s war on Ukraine as “four and a half years of Russia’s full-scale invasion … aimed at crushing the independence we are here to celebrate” as he appeared alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a ceremony in Kyiv.
“But today and every day, you prove that they have failed.”
Burnham is also to co-chair a meeting of the so-called Coalition of the Willing, those nations prepared to provide support for war-torn Ukraine.
The sharing of top-secret weapons blueprints stands in contrast to US President Donald Trump’s backpedalling last month on a promise to allow Ukraine to manufacture its own version of the US-made Patriot air defence interceptor, which Ukraine says it badly needs to counter Russian ballistic missile attacks.
While the US has provided Ukraine with US-made Patriot air defence batteries and munitions in the past, Trump last month said handing over the underlying technology to Ukraine to be able to independently produce them was “a hard thing to give away”.
The UK’s decision to share blueprints, however, follows a similar move by France and comes as Ukraine and Russia exchange heavy air attacks and Russian President Vladimir Putin warns of intensified retaliatory strikes on Ukrainian economic infrastructure.
Ukraine has stepped up its domestic military production, crafting long-range drones and missiles that strike deep into Russian territory, but analysts said producing its own Storm Shadows will give Kyiv the ability to hit Russia’s strategic targets more efficiently and at an unprecedented rate.
Also known as SCALP in France, these missiles have a range of about 560km (350 miles) and are capable of hitting targets 240km (150 miles) inside Russian territory. This is not as far as Ukraine’s in-house, deep-strike drones, such as the FP-5 Flamingo cruise missile, which has a range of 3,000km (1,865 miles).
But while Ukrainian long-range missiles can hit “soft” targets inside Russia, such as Wildberries warehouses, Storm Shadow missiles give Kyiv the ability to hit “hard” targets, including heavily fortified, guarded locations that are usually protected by much tougher defences.
Their advanced navigation systems also mean they can be used at night and in all weather conditions.
Last year, the Ukrainian military’s General Staff said Storm Shadow missiles made by the manufacturer MBDA and provided by the UK had been used to hit Russian facilities, including a chemical plant and the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery, one of the biggest oil product suppliers in southern Russia. This year, they were used to attack Russia’s Black Sea naval headquarters in the port city of Sevastopol in Crimea.
One Storm Shadow missile is estimated to cost about $1m to produce, so they are deployed in more carefully calibrated attacks than the flurry of cheap drones that Ukraine already mass-produces.
