Russia warns after the delivery of the United Kingdom to Ukraine of 'Storm Shadow' missiles: "It is an extremely hostile step"

Britain's delivery of long-range 'Storm Shadow' missiles to Ukraine is “an extremely hostile step” that could lead to a serious escalation in the region, the Russian Foreign Ministry warned on Friday.

“We view this decision as a new extremely hostile step by London, aimed at continuing to pump weapons into Ukraine and which will lead to a serious escalation,” Russian diplomacy said in a statement.

According to Foreign Affairs, Russia “reserves the right to take all necessary measures to neutralize threats that could arise as a result of Ukraine's use of British cruise missiles.”

“The perpetrators and perpetrators of this unreasonable step will bear full and complete responsibility for London's destructive actions,” added the department headed by Sergei Lavrov.

“Ukraine has the right to be able to defend itself”

British Defense Minister Ben Wallace confirmed Thursday in Parliament that his government will send long-range “Storm Shadows” missiles to the Ukrainian Army.

In his statement, Wallace argued that “the donation of these weapons systems gives Ukraine the best chance of defending itself against continued Russian brutality, especially deliberate attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, which are contrary to international law.”

“Ukraine has the right to be able to defend itself against this,” stressed the minister, insisting that these missiles “will allow Ukraine to expel Russian forces that are based within Ukrainian sovereign territory.”

“They're not even in the same league”

The politician also noted that he did not plan to elaborate on the capabilities of those missiles but noted that “these systems are not even in the same league as the Russian Killjoy AS-24 (Kinzhal) hypersonic missiles,” nor are they up to par. the “Kalibr cruise missiles that have a range of 2,000 kilometers, about seven times that of the Storm Shadow.”

“Russia must recognize that its actions have led to the provision of these systems to Ukraine,” said the British minister, concluding that it is “a calibrated and proportionate response to Russia's escalations.”

The 'Storm Shadow' missiles, jointly developed by the UK and France, have a range of more than 250km, slightly less than the ATACMS the US has so far refused to send to Ukraine.