Kremlin threat as UK vows to send Ukraine more rockets
RUSSIA last night threatened to push further into Ukraine after the UK and US pledged long-range rockets to help Kyiv.
Britain’s sophisticated M270 launchers can fire precision-guided rockets up to 50 miles and take out Russian artillery that is indiscriminately pulverising eastern cities.
Despite its attempts to seize the eastern regions moving at a crawl, Moscow responded by vowing to push the front line even further into Ukraine.
Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said: ‘The longer the range of the systems that will be delivered, the further we will move back the Nazis from the line from which threats to Russian-speakers and the Russian Federation may come.’
After the US announced it was sending M142 rocket systems, Vladimir Putin warned on Sunday that Russia would strike ‘new targets’ if the West supplied longer-range missiles. The threat was dismissed by Boris Johnson, who said the British systems will help Ukraine ‘effectively repel the continuing Russian onslaught’.
The Prime Minister said: ‘We cannot stand by while Russian long-range artillery flattens cities and kills innocent civilians.’
Despite yesterday’s leadership drama, Mr Johnson spoke to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss the latest military aid from the UK.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: ‘The UK stands with Ukraine in this fight and is taking a leading role in supplying its heroic troops with the vital weapons they need. If the international community continues its support, I believe Ukraine can win. As Russia’s tactics change, so must our support to Ukraine. These highly capable multiple-launch rocket systems will enable our Ukrainian friends to better protect themselves against the brutal use of long-range artillery.’
Ukrainian troops will be trained in the UK to use the equipment, he added. A land warfare expert said the pledges from the UK and US could make a difference, but warned it would not ‘change things overnight’.
Dr Jack Watling, of the Royal United Services Institute thinktank, said the M270 rocket launchers were the ‘crown jewels of the British Army’s capability’.
But he told BBC Radio 4 it would take time for the Ukrainians to be trained to use them. The BBC said it understood the UK was supplying three of the M270 systems.
In a further blow to Putin, it was claimed that he lost two more senior commanders in a devastating bridge ambush in eastern Ukraine. A group of independent journalists working on both sides of the war said Major-General Roman Kutuzov and LieutenantGeneral Roman Berdnikov were killed on the same day in an attack by Kyiv’s forces.
Meanwhile, Russia’s air force appears to be turning to crowdfunding to source basic equipment. Images posted on a Russian aviation channel showed radios, flashlights, binoculars and even pilot helmets and oxygen masks that were funded or sourced by the channel’s 125,000 subscribers.
It came as Lavrov was forced to cancel a visit to Serbia after several European countries refused permission for him to fly through their airspace. The Kremlin denounced the ‘hostile actions’ of Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Montenegro.
‘Brutal use of artillery’