UK says the Storm Shadow missiles it gave Ukraine have been wreaking havoc on Russian targets and are accurate 'almost without fault'
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Mia Jankowicz
Jun 28, 2023, 01:14 IST
A Storm Shadow cruise missile on display during the Paris Air Show, Monday, June 19, 2023.Lewis Joly/AP Photo
The air-launched Storm Shadow missile is being used to great effect in Ukraine, the UK said.
The UK-supplied weapon is performing "almost without fault," UK Defense Minister Ben Wallace said.
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Storm Shadow missiles provided to Ukraine by the UK are striking their targets with nearly pinpoint accuracy, sending Russian operations into disarray, the UK said Monday.
"Its accuracy and ability to deliver successfully the payload, as sent and designed by the Ukrainians, has been almost without fault," he added.
According to its manufacturer, MBDA, the air-launched missile has a range exceeding 155 miles and is designed to fly low after launch to evade detection.
An onboard infrared target-seeking system allows it to recognize planned targets for a precision strike, MBDA says.
By the end of that month, Ukraine said it was using the missile with a 100% strike success — a figure challenged by Russia, which said it had intercepted two of them, Reuters reported.
On Thursday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu accused Ukraine of using the missiles to strike the Chonhar bridge, a key conduit connecting the Russian-held Kherson to Crimea, The Telegraph reported.
Ukraine did not immediately claim responsibility for the strike, which extensively damaged the bridge. But a defense-intelligence spokesperson nonetheless promised "more of this," according to the newspaper.
A strike on the bridge using a Storm Shadow missile would be within the bounds of the UK's conditions for Ukraine's use of the weapon, which is intended to be fired on Ukrainian territory only — a long-held condition of Western-provided military aid.
Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014, but it nonetheless remains recognized as a Ukrainian sovereign territory by the vast majority of the international community.
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Russia, however, had warned that strikes on Crimea using Western-supplied weapons "would mean that the United States and Britain would be fully dragged into the conflict." It also threatened retaliation on "decision-making centers in Ukraine," The Telegraph reported.
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