Ukraine fires British Storm Shadow missiles at Russian targets for the first time

Ukraine carried out its first strikes against Russian targets using the Storm Shadow missiles, which were supplied by the UK. As reported by Bloomberg, the initiative by Volodomir Zelensky’s government is a response to the Russian deployment of North Korean troops.

This is in addition to President Joe Biden's authorization, not yet confirmed by the White House, of the use of the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS), which was already recently inaugurated by Ukrainian forces.

The Democratic president also approved sending anti-personnel mines to Ukraine. The Biden Administration itself had refused to send such weapons to Ukraine throughout the three-year war, but the policy reversal is part of a series of urgent actions the president is taking to support Kiev in the final days of his term.

According to The Washington Post, the Biden Administration and Pentagon officials see sending these weapons as the best way to try to slow Russian troop advances.

Faced with the Kremlin's flirtation with a nuclear response, Kiev remained calm on the matter. "Right now, we see new attempts by the Kremlin to use nuclear sabre-rattling to scare the West. Their updated nuclear doctrine and public rhetoric on the use of nuclear weapons are nothing more than blackmail," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said.

"They have used it many times before when strong decisions were made. We must remain cold-headed, clear-eyed, and not give in to empty fear," he added.

The tension in Washington DC and Moscow is such that the Kremlin claims that they are not using the famous hotline that was first used during the Cold War to reduce tensions in the face of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

What is a Storm Shadow missile?

In terms of its physical characteristics, it is just over 5 meters long, weighs 1.3 tons (1,300 kilograms) and has an attack capacity of more than 300 kilometers away, making it a very useful weapon.

It was developed in 1994 as part of a joint project between France and the United Kingdom, at a cost of approximately 2 million pounds per unit. They are currently manufactured in the town of Stevenage by the company MBDA.

Once launched, the missile cannot be controlled, self-destruct or change its target, making it a fire-and-forget missile. Once fired, it will follow a semi-automatic path to its target, although prior to impact it rises slightly and then dives into the target. The purpose of this is to achieve a better chance of identifying and making contact with its "victim."