Why the US and UK disagree on Ukrainian deep strikes inside Russia

telegraph and the Financial Times reported this week that Britain had privately asked the US to give the go-ahead to allow Ukraine to use its Storm Shadow missiles – known as SCALP missiles in France – on Russian soil.

The FT said “well-placed” sources told the publication that the British government sent a request to Washington and Paris earlier this summer asking that Ukraine be allowed to fire British Storm Shadows at targets in Russia. The publication noted that Ukraine’s use of Storm Shadow may rely on US capabilities, potentially preventing Britain from unilaterally allowing it to use them.

French President Emmanuel Macron also expressed support for allowing Ukraine to strike Russian military sites with Western weapons.

“We must allow them (the Ukrainians) to neutralize the military sites from which the missiles are fired, but not other civilian or military targets. We are not doing this,” he said in May.

But the US remains concerned about the possibility of escalation should these missiles or its own ATACMS missiles be used on Russian soil.

Maximilian Hess, a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told Business Insider: “From the US point of view, in particular, Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, has repeatedly paid significant attention to Russia’s stated red lines and sought to avoid stepping on them. ”, adding that this argument was very influential on the administration’s thinking.

But Hess added that it’s “pretty clear that Putin’s supposed red lines on these things aren’t all that red.”

“Just a few years ago, Russia was saying that sending the US Javelin missiles into Ukraine to target helicopters would be a serious escalation,” he said.

Hess said he believed that privately the UK and France would argue that the risks of a potential escalation were greatly exaggerated and that it was Russia’s longstanding practice to try to intimidate the West into withdrawing its support.

Kiev is also keen to get its hands on the German-made Taurus missile, which has a range of 500km (about 310 miles) – double that of the Storm Shadow. But Berlin has repeatedly refused to send them over, echoing US fears of escalation. The US-made ATACMS has a range of approximately 300 km (186 miles).

Zelensky has long argued that the ability to strike targets deep inside Russia is crucial to Ukraine’s defense.

“We need sufficient range to defend Ukraine from Russian missiles and air-guided bombs, to prevent the transfer of Russian troops and to counter the occupier’s pressure on the key front,” he said in August.

Ukraine is particularly keen to target Russian air bases where planes used to drop missiles and bomb Ukraine are stationed.

But an unnamed Biden administration official said Political Earlier this month, Russia moved targets out of the range of Western-donated missiles such as ATACMS or Storm Shadow.

An unnamed senior administration official added that “90 percent of aircraft launching glide bombs” in Russian airspace have already been moved out of range of these missiles, the report said.

The Institute for the Study of War said that while it “noted the confirmation of the redeployment of Russian aircraft”, it “did not discount the importance of allowing Ukraine to use ATACMS against hundreds of other Russian military objects”.

Despite Western-imposed limits, Ukraine has still claimed some success in conducting deep strikes into Russia using drones.

In July, Ukraine said it shot down a Russian Tu-22M3 supersonic bomber at Olenya Air Base in Murmansk, 1,800 miles inside Russian territory, while in May Ukraine’s Security Service said a Ukrainian drone with long range hit a Gazprom oil refinery about 930 miles away. .