No new Ukrainian missile pledge after Starmer-Biden talks in Washington

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has not yet made a decision on allowing Ukraine to use long-range missiles to strike targets in Russia after talks with US President Joe Biden in Washington.

When asked if he had persuaded Biden to allow Ukraine to fire long-range Storm Shadow missiles at Russia, Sir Keir said they had had “a long and productive conversation on a number of fronts, including Ukraine, as you would expect, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific”.

The White House also said it had “expressed deep concern about the supply of lethal weapons to Russia by Iran and North Korea.”

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Western countries not to allow Ukraine to fire long-range missiles at Russia.

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

Biden told reporters ahead of his meeting with Sir Keir at the White House: “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 in Russia, fearing escalation.

However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly called on Kiev’s Western allies to allow the use of weapons, saying it is the only way to end the war.

Since Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukrainian cities and frontlines have been bombed by Russia on a daily basis.

Many of the missiles and glider bombs hitting Ukraine’s military positions, apartment buildings, power plants and hospitals are fired by Russian aircraft deep inside Russia.

Kiev says not being allowed to attack the bases from which the attacks are carried out hampers the country’s self-defense capabilities.

The UK previously said Ukraine has a “clear right” to use British-supplied weapons for “self-defence”, which “does not preclude operations in Russia”, following Kiev’s surprise border raid last month.

However, this precludes the use of long-range Storm Shadow missiles on territory outside Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders.

The US delivered long-range missiles to Ukraine earlier this year, but like Kiev’s other Western allies, they are not authorized for use on targets deep inside Russia.

Asked whether he was intimidated by Putin’s threats of a possible war with NATO, Sir Keir replied that “the quickest way to resolve” the war in Ukraine “depends on what Putin actually does”.

According to Sir Keir, the White House meeting with Biden was an opportunity to discuss strategy on Ukraine, “not just a particular move or tactic”.

The pair also discussed the situation in the Middle East, where the war between Israel and Gaza has been raging for almost a year, and “other areas around the world”, Sir Keir added.

He told reporters that they will have another opportunity to discuss these issues next week at the United Nations General Assembly.

In a separate briefing on Friday ahead of the two leaders’ meeting, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Washington plans no changes to restrictions it has placed on Ukraine’s use of US weapons to attack Russian territory.

Earlier on Friday, Moscow has expelled six British diplomatswhere their accreditation was revoked and they were accused of espionage.

The country’s security service, the FSB, said in a statement that it had received documents indicating Britain’s involvement in inflicting “a strategic defeat” on Russia. The allegations were dismissed by the British Foreign Office as “completely baseless”.

In an interview with the BBC, British defense analyst Justin Crump said Putin is testing the new Labor government and the outgoing Biden administration.

“Ultimately, Russia is already supplying weapons to the UK’s adversaries and is already engaged in ‘active measures’ such as subversion, espionage, sabotage and information/cyber operations against the interests of NATO members.

“This could all happen faster, but Russia can’t afford to take on the entire NATO, given how hard they’re fighting against Ukraine alone,” Crump added.

On Friday, the US also announced new sanctions against Russian media outlet RT, accusing the channel of being a “de facto part of Russian intelligence.”

Top US diplomat Antony Blinken told reporters that RT is part of a network of Russian-backed media outlets that are secretly trying to “undermine democracy in the United States.”

In response to US accusations that RT tried to influence the elections, RT’s editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan – who was sanctioned by the US last week – said that RT had excellent teachers. She added that many RT staff members had studied in the US, with US funding.

Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said there should be a “new profession” in the US: that of a specialist in sanctions against Russia.