Ukraine wants permission from the West to use Storm Shadow missiles with long range to destroy targets deep in Russia. This, according to Kiev, will force Russian President Vladimir Putin to sit down at the negotiating table.
Ukrainian officials suggest that the use of Western weapons in a “demonstration attack” will show the Kremlin that military installations near the capital itself may be vulnerable to direct attacks, writes The Guardian.
According to the source, Russia will consider negotiations only when it believes that Ukraine is able to "threaten Moscow and St. Petersburg". However, this strategy does not yet have the support of the US.
For months, Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukrainian officials have been asking Western countries for permission to use the delivered longer-range missiles to attack targets deep inside Russian territory. So far no green light has been given. In his speech on the occasion of Ukraine's Independence Day yesterday, Zelensky said that “sooner or later, the Ukrainian response will reach every point of the Russian Federation, which is a source of danger to the life of our country and our people.
Storm Shadow missiles were developed primarily as part of Anglo-French cooperation, but since some of the missile's components are supplied by the US, the White House must also agree to their use on Russian territory. So far, Washington has refused to do so, fearing an escalation of the conflict.
Kiev, for its part, argues that Putin's red lines are a bluff, and the Ukrainian army's invasion of the Kursk region has once again proven this. Currently, Putin's conditions for “negotiations” with Ukraine mean the capitulation of the Ukrainian state.