British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace leaves the Cabinet Office in Whitehall, London, Tuesday April 25, 2023. Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden will chair a Cobra meeting on the evacuation of British nationals from Sudan. (Jordan Pettitt/PA via AP)
LONDON (AP) – British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Thursday that the U.K. is sending Ukraine long-range cruise missiles to help push back Russian forces.
Wallace told lawmakers in the House of Commons that Britain is donating Storm Shadow missiles. He didn’t say how many are being sent.
Wallace said the missiles “are now going into or are in the country itself.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged in February that Britain would be the first country to give Ukraine the longer-range weapons that it has sought from Western allies.
The missiles give Ukraine capacity to strike well behind the front lines, including in Russia-occupied Crimea. U.K. media reported that Ukraine has pledged not to use the missiles to attack Russia itself.
Wallace said the missiles would be used to push back Russian forces in “Ukrainian sovereign territory.” He said U.K. support for Ukraine is “responsible, calibrated, coordinated and agile.”
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