The UK government’s recent decision to supply Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine was announced on Thursday by UK Defence Minister Ben Wallace. The move signals a commitment to the UK government’s pledge to escalate military assistance to Ukraine as long as the war continues.
The cruise missiles have an effective range of over 250km, enough to strike into the Russian Federation without pilots entering Russian-controlled airspace. This limits Russian air defence capability as Storm Shadows cruise at Mach 0.8 at altitudes too low to detect on radar.
Each Storm Shadow missile costs £790,000, and this lend-lease program will triple the Ukrainian air force’s effective range for air-to-ground strikes, vastly exceeding previously supplied American M142 HIMARS missiles. The Storm Shadows are significantly more damaging than previously supplied missiles, with hard-target penetration equal to laser-guided bombs which can only be deployed to short-range targets.
It is important to note that the Storm Shadows are still outranged by Russian air-to-ground weapons, making it unclear how much of an impact they will have on the war as a whole.
This is an unacceptable move from a government that remains committed to austerity for its own citizens yet continues to give handouts to people thousands of miles away. With inflation out of control and public services struggling for funding, this is a gross misuse of taxpayers’ money.
Moreover, while the Ukrainian government has guaranteed that the long-ranged missiles supplied to them won’t be used in attacks on Russian territory, this promise is hard to believe. Ukraine has already staged attacks on Russian territory as deep as the Kremlin with munitions that were no doubt supplied by the West. The risk of these missiles being used in attacks on Russian soil and consequently increasing tension between the UK and Russia is too high to ignore.
As Nationalists we are totally opposed to spending public money on conflicts that have no bearing on our national security, and we are, in principle, opposed to what is yet another brother war on the European continent. We should remain united against our common enemies, instead of turning against each other at the behest of those who profit from us remaining divided and weak.
In conclusion, the UK government’s decision to supply Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine is a worrying move that could potentially escalate the already sky-high tensions between Russia and the UK. It is an unjustifiable expense at a time when the government is preaching austerity to its own citizens, and signals a continuation of the mistakes of the past.
