The Times of London reports that when attending the Ukrainian national day in Kiev on Aug. 24, the new British Prime Minister Andy Burnham would hand over papers enabling Ukraine to build missiles based on the Storm Shadow type, to be used for strikes deep into Russian territory.
What is being transferred is not additional missiles of this type (London has been supplying the 250-km-range Storm Shadow to Kiev since 2023, an inventory largely depleted by now). Instead, Burnham would provide the information required to build them, so that France and Ukraine can assemble SCALP — the French version of Britain’s Storm Shadow — on Ukrainian territory. Downing Street adds that the move “complements the major UK effort to rapidly develop low-cost advanced long-range strike weapons for Ukraine through Project Brakestop,” and states that Britain has committed £25 billion to Ukraine, £16 billion of it military.
Burnham co-chaired his first meeting of the Coalition of the Willing while in Kiev. “Russia should be in no doubt of our resolve,” he said. “We will not back down until there is a just and lasting peace.”
Moscow answered within hours. “Britain methodically and regularly adds fuel to the fire,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “And it methodically and regularly plots to prevent any development of the peaceful settlement process.” Replying to a question from Sky News about the Kremlin’s reaction to Burnham’s plan, Peskov first said, “It is extremely negative. Britain is taking part in this war on the Kiev regime’s side.” He added, “Our Armed Forces are doing the relevant work and obtaining the relevant data, to identify the production locations of these missiles and those of other military equipment, and to take measures to destroy these sites.”
The British are marching ahead with this, and other European governments, such as Germany, are expected to follow. The commitment of both governments to supply Ukraine with missiles, though not explicitly referring to the handing over of blueprints, is expressed in a bilateral Anglo-German defense agreement (Trinity House agreement) signed in 2024. In 2025, the UK formally announced it was working with Ukraine on long-range strike weapons under this agreement.
