No new pledge on Ukraine missiles after Starmer-Biden talks

Early on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had launched over 70 Iranian-made drones across Ukraine overnight, and that his country needed more air defence and long-range capabilities “to protect life and our people”.

Putin said such a move would represent Nato’s “direct participation” in the Ukraine war.

But former defence secretary Sir Ben Wallace told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme Nato should let Ukraine fire long-range missiles in Russia in spite of Putin’s threats, adding that wrangling was just benefiting the Russian president.

“I’m just disappointed that it’s yet again another tug of war around another capability,” the former Conservative MP said.

Kurt Volker, former US special representative for Ukraine negotiations said Putin’s comments were made to prevent further Western action.

“The reason Putin says those things is to achieve the result of deterring us from doing things – not that it has any bearing on what he’s really going to do or really thinks,” he told the Today programme.

Commenting on the debate over long-range missiles, he said the US “overplays the sense that this is a new red line that this would be so provocative to Russia that it would create some kind of new escalation”.

Addressing reporters ahead of his meeting with Sir Keir at the White House, Biden said: “I don’t think much about Vladimir Putin”.

To date, the US and UK have not given Ukraine permission to use long-range missiles against targets inside Russia, for fear of escalation.

However, Zelensky has repeatedly called on Kyiv’s Western allies to authorise such use, saying it is the only way to bring about an end to the war.

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukrainian cities and front lines have been under daily bombardment from Russia.

Many of the missiles and glide bombs that hit Ukraine’s military positions, blocks of flats, energy facilities and hospitals are launched by Russian aircraft deep inside Russia.

Kyiv says not being allowed to hit the bases from which these attacks are launched hinders its self-defence capability.

The UK previously said Ukraine had a “clear right” to use British-provided weapons for “self-defence” which “does not preclude operations inside Russia”, following Kyiv’s surprise cross-border incursion last month.

However, this excludes the use of long-range Storm Shadow missiles in territory outside Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders.

The US provided long-range missiles to Ukraine earlier this year, but like Kyiv’s other Western allies these have not been authorised for use on targets deep inside Russia.