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Britain Confirms Supplying Ukraine With Long-Range Missiles As Moscow Fumes

By RFE/RL May 11, 2023

Britain says it is supplying long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine, giving Kyiv the capability to hit Russian troops well behind front lines as it prepares for a long-expected counteroffensive against Russia's occupying forces.

Defense Minister Ben Wallace on May 11 confirmed to British lawmakers that the U.K. will donate Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine.

"The use of Storm Shadow will allow Ukraine to push back Russian forces based within Ukrainian sovereign territory," he added without specifying how many are being delivered.

Storm Shadow missiles, which have a range of more than 250 kilometers, give Ukraine the capacity to strike well behind Russian front lines and as far as Moscow-occupied Crimea.

"We will simply not stand by as Russia kills civilians. Russia must recognize that its actions alone have led to such systems being provided to Ukraine," Wallace said.

British media reports said Kyiv had promised not to use the missiles to strike inside Russia's territory.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov issued a tweet full of metaphors following Wallace's announcement.

"The weather forecast is predicting a cyclone moving from the U.K. towards Ukraine, bringing with it Storms," he said. "It is through the Shadow of the Storm that the sunshine of our liberty will break through and shed light on our Victory."

The Kremlin regarded the announcement on the Storm Shadow missiles "quite negatively," spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"It will demand an appropriate response from our military that will definitely make the decisions required in military terms," Peskov said.

The announcement from London came shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an interview with European broadcasters that Kyiv is delaying the start of the counteroffensive because it lacks enough Western weapons to succeed without suffering too many casualties.

A Ukrainian counteroffensive has been expected since warmer weather improved battlefield conditions, and Zelenskiy said it's possible that "we can go forward and be successful," the BBC reported.

"But we'd lose a lot of people. I think that's unacceptable," he was quoted as saying. "So we need to wait. We still need a bit more time.... In terms of equipment, not everything has arrived yet."

Ukraine earlier claimed a small but significant battlefield victory outside the devastated eastern city of Bakhmut, reportedly inflicting major losses on a Russian brigade.

Hints of a major clash emerged earlier this week, when Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the private Russian mercenary group Wagner, published a video suggesting that a Russian unit called the 72nd Brigade had either deserted or been wiped out as they fought alongside his troops.

Prigozhin on May 9 said several kilometers of frontline territory had been lost, and he suggested his forces could have suffered up to 500 killed. He also repeated his claims that his forces were being deprived of ammunition and he lashed out at Russian commanders, accusing them of incompetence.

"Our army is fleeing. The 72nd Brigade [pissed away] 3-square kilometers this morning, where I had lost around 500 men," Prigozhin said in the video.

Prigozhin on May 11 said that the situation on the flanks near Bakhmut was unfolding in line with the "worst of all expected scenarios," asserting that Ukraine's counteroffensive was already under way.

In the area of Bakhmut, he said Ukrainian armed forces "are hitting our flanks and, unfortunately, in some places they are being successful."

Prigozhin complained that territory captured over the course of many months was being "thrown away" by those who should be guarding the flanks. In his view this responsibility belongs to regular Russian troops.

The Ukrainian ground commander overseeing the 10-month battle for Bakhmut claimed that Russian forces had been forced to retreat.

"We are effectively counterattacking," Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskiy said in a post on Telegram. "On some sections of the front, the enemy could not withstand pressure from Ukrainian defenders and had to retreat up to 2 kilometers."

The Russian Defense Ministry denied reports of Ukrainian military breakthroughs along parts of the front line, saying late on May 11 that the "overall situation in the area of the special military operation is under control."

Peskov said earlier on May 11 in an interview with a Bosnian Serb television station that he was confident Bakhmut "will be captured and will be kept under control."

Bakhmut has been the focus of intense fighting for months, with Wagner group forces playing a key role in a brutal, grinding effort to push Ukrainian forces out of the city. Russian troops are believed to control as much as 75 percent of the city.

The Russian push for Bakhmut has perplexed some military observers, while Ukraine's stubborn defense of the city has also come under question.

Russian forces have spent months digging major defenses, including trenches and minefields, across parts of eastern and southern Ukraine.

In recent weeks, there has been a noticeable uptick in reports of drone attacks hitting sites in Russian border regions. Ukraine is believed to be behind the attacks.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, Reuters, AFP, BBC, and dpa

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-bakhmut- russia-relinquishes-ground-prigozhin/32405897.html

Copyright (c) 2023. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.