The UK Government should lobby the US to give Ukraine permission to use long-range Storm Shadow missiles on Russian territory, Conservative MPs have told the Commons.
Former defence minister Mark Francois said that without the weapons, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s forces were fighting with “one hand tied behind their back” more than two years after the Russian army began its full-scale invasion.
Mr Francois said: “There is no third country exercising a veto on how (Vladimir) Putin uses long-range missiles, which he uses without compunction, even to attack children’s hospitals in Ukraine.
“And yet the media consistently reports there is an American veto on Ukrainian use of Storm Shadow missiles to attack targets at depth in Russia, even though that will materially assist Ukraine.
“Could the minister of the Foreign Office talk with our American allies to get that veto removed because the Ukrainians are fighting for our freedom too?”
Foreign Office minister Anneliese Dodds said the UK Government’s position was unchanged, and it was working with allies to supply Ukraine with munitions and support.
She said: “We have been providing military aid to support Ukraine’s clear right of self-defence against Russia’s illegal attacks in accordance with international humanitarian law, and we are clear that the equipment provided by the UK is intended for the defence of Ukraine.”
Mr Francois, who represents Rayleigh and Wickford, had echoed the words of the Father of the House, Conservative MP Sir Edward Leigh.
Sir Edward told the Commons: “It seems to me that if you are attacked by a demented bear, you either run away or hit him so hard that he runs away. But our policy of the West and Ukraine appears to be to wound and not win.
“In that context, will this Government make an unequivocal statement in public that Ukraine should be allowed to use Storm Shadow, and more importantly, the US-made army tactical missile system? Then we might actually win this war.”
The Commons heard that the Government considers the Ukrainian incursion into the Russian region of Kursk a “defensive” move.
Responding to an urgent question from shadow foreign secretary Andrew Mitchell on support for Ukraine, referencing Ukrainian forces recently advancing about 22 miles into Russia, Ms Dodds said: “Those actions were defensive actions. They would not have taken place if we’d not seen the illegal invasion of Ukraine and therefore he is completely appropriate in the language he uses to describe them.
“When it comes to equipping Ukraine in that defensive activity, of course we will continue and indeed have intensified commitment towards that.”
