Sir Keir Starmer went too far by publicly confirming that Storm Shadows given to Ukraine can be used to hit Russia, defence sources have said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has been meeting world leaders at Nato’s 75th anniversary in Washington, announced on Wednesday evening that he had been granted permission to use strategic cruise missiles in Russia.
Posting on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Zelensky shared a photograph of himself and the Prime Minister, with the caption: “This morning, I learnt about the permission to use Storm Shadow missiles against military targets in Russian territory. Today, we had the opportunity to discuss the practical implementation of this decision.”
Defence sources told The Telegraph that they were “disappointed” Sir Keir had allowed the conversation with President Zelensky to be made public, as it is more operationally effective to keep such plans under wraps until they have been executed.
Sources confirmed the missile has not been used this year and stressed that President Zelensky would have to “seek assurances elsewhere” before Ukraine could fire the cruise missiles into Russian territory. They added that these assurances were not a done deal.
Lord Dannatt, the former army head, said: “From an operational security point of view, the less you say about things you might do, the more effective they are.”
He added: “This has to be weighed against desire for political credit and I would have said operational security was the highest priority.”