UK ‘greenlights’ strikes against Putin’s forces in Russia as Ukraine on path to Nato

British-supplied missiles can be used by Ukraine to strike targets inside Russia, the UK has told Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.

UK defence secretary John Healey green-lighted Kyiv’s use of Storm Shadow missiles for defensive strikes inside Russian territory on Wednesday.

Signalling the move, but declining to get into “operational arrangements”, John Healey, the new defence secretary, told Sky News that Britain “will do all we can to help Ukraine in their fight to repel Putin’s invasion”.

The National Cancer Institute in Kyiv was busier than usual after a Russian missile struck Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital this week, forcing the evacuation of dozens of its young patients battling cancer.

Russia’s heaviest bombardment of the Ukrainian capital in four months severely damaged Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital on Monday, terrorising families and severely impacting their children already battling life-threatening diseases.

Now, some families face a dilemma of where to continue their children’s treatment.

Oksana Halak only learned about her 2-year-old son Dmytro’s diagnosis — acute lymphoblastic leukemia — at the beginning of June. She immediately decided to have him treated at Okhmatdyt, “because it is one of the best hospitals in Europe.”

She and Dmytro were in the hospital for his treatment when sirens blared across the city. They couldn’t run to the shelter as the little boy was on an IV. “It is vitally important not to interrupt these IVs,” Halak said.

Russia launched two Iskander-M ballistic missiles and six Shahed drones in an attack on Ukraine in the early hours today, Ukrainian air force said.

One person was injured in the missile strike on the northeastern region of Sumy, according to the regional authorities.

Ukrainian air defence said it shot down all six drones launched by Russia over four Ukrainian regions.

Mykolaiv regional governor said drone debris caused a fire in an open area, which has since been put out, and reported no casualties.

The authorities in the western regions of Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Khmelnytskyi reported no casualties or damage to civilian infrastructure.

Ukrainian forces can now use British missiles for defensive strikes against target inside Russian territory, Keir Starmer told Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky at the Nato summit.

New defence secretary in his administration, John Healey, signalled the move but did not share details of the “operational arrangements”. Britain, he said, “will do all we can to help Ukraine in their fight to repel Putin’s invasion”.

“We provide weapons equipment where we can for them to defend themselves, and as we do for ourselves and any other nation in conflict, we require, because it’s international law, that war is conducted within those rules of the Geneva Convention,” Mr Healey told Sky News yesterday.

A spokesperson for the Chinese mission to the European Union has reacted to the declaration of the Nato summit in Washington and called it full of “belligerent rhetoric”, and the China-related content has provocations, “lies, incitement and smears”.

The draft communique being developed at the Nato summit in Washington said that China has become a decisive enabler of Russia’s war effort in Ukraine and Beijing continues to pose systemic challenges to Europe and to security.

“As we all know, China is not the creator of the crisis in Ukraine,” said a spokesperson in a statement released this morning.

The joint meeting with Mike Johnson and Hakeem Jeffries was likely to largely focus on establishing some of Starmer’s first relationships on Capitol Hill as prime minister while also touching on some policy issues including the most anticipated topic of the week: Ukraine, and the eastern European country’s journey to becoming a Nato member-state.

US officials, alongside their counterparts in the UK and other Nato countries, are set to unveil what the Biden administration has been previewing as a “bridge to Nato membership” for Ukraine this week.

Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg underlined that Ukraine will not join the alliance’s ranks immediately. But he insisted that must happen after the war is over to ensure that Russia never attacks Ukraine again.

Of the overall Nato assistance, he said, “We are not doing this because we want to prolong a war. We are doing it because we want to end a war as soon as possible.

Mr Stoltenberg also delivered a passionate defence of the military alliance itself last night when reporters asked about the possibility that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, a Nato critic, could pull US support for the alliance if he wins in November.”

Yesterday, the alliance welcomed Ukraine’s democratic, economic and security reforms needed to join and said it would get an invitation “when allies agree and conditions are met”.

While Nato leaders stand ready to offer Ukraine the means to defend itself in a war now in its third year, they did not say it should prevail.

Indeed, their statement said that “Nato does not seek confrontation, and poses no threat to Russia. We remain willing to maintain channels of communication with Moscow to mitigate risk and prevent escalation”.