Great Britain Russia claims to have intercepted Storm Shadow cruise missiles

According to Russia, it has intercepted two Storm Shadow cruise missiles fired by Ukraine. This was announced by the Ministry of Defense in Moscow. This would be the first deployment of such cruise missiles supplied by Great Britain over Russia since the start of the war. Moscow recently described the use of long-range weapons as an escalation of the conflict and lowered the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons in its own nuclear doctrine.

"Two British-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles, six US-made Himars reactive projectiles and 67 drones were shot down by the air defense system," the Russian military statement said. The Ministry of Defense did not provide any information on impacts or damage.

On Tuesday, the authority had already reported the first use of long-range missiles over Russian soil that had been supplied by the USA, so-called ATACMS missiles. Five of the six missiles were intercepted by the air defense system. The sixth missile was damaged, the ministry announced on its telegram channel. Its debris had fallen onto a military site in the Bryansk region near the border. A fire had been extinguished. "There are no casualties or destruction," it said at the time.

Moscow sees involvement of the supplier countries through the use of the weapons

ATACMS and Storm Shadow are long-range weapons. The Kremlin has warned against their use over Russian territory. These missiles could only be operated by Western military personnel, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin claimed in October. Accordingly, the use of these weapons would be seen by Moscow as direct participation in the war by the respective states.

Russia recently softened its nuclear doctrine in this context. Russia could also use nuclear weapons if the country was attacked by a state without nuclear weapons that was itself supported by a nuclear power. On Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov once again called the US government's behavior irresponsible because of the missile strikes. He did not want to comment on the strike with the Storm Shadow cruise missiles.

At the same time, he emphasized that Russia was striving to avoid a nuclear war. "We are counting on other countries to take an equally responsible position," he added.

The British have so far kept a low profile on the use of their cruise missiles. British media reported on Wednesday that Ukraine had attacked targets in Russia with Storm Shadow for the first time. According to media reports, the USA had only recently allowed Ukraine to use longer-range US-made missiles against targets in Russia.

What are Storm Shadows?

The British Storm Shadow is an air-launched cruise missile with a range of more than 250 kilometers for precision attacks on targets such as bunkers or critical infrastructure. They are identical in design to the French Scalp missiles.

Ukraine is in its third year of defending itself against Russia's war of aggression. President Volodymyr Selensky has long been asking to be able to deploy longer-range weapons from Western partners on Russian territory. The reason given was that this would be decisive for the course of the war.

The US release is seen as a response to the suspected deployment of North Korean soldiers on Moscow's side. Russia, for its part, sees the US weapons as an escalation and an involvement of the USA and other Western states in the war.

SDA