‘Tug of war’ talks over long-range missiles helping Putin’s war on Ukraine, warns former defence secretary

Starmer said the UK and US have come to a ‘strong position’ in their quest for a resolution in Ukraine - but it appears no final decision has been made on the use of Storm Shadow missiles by Ukraine

Former defence secretary Ben Wallace has said he is “disappointed” by the “tug of war” discussions between US President Joe Biden and PM Sir Keir Starmer about Ukraine amid an apparent delay on a decision on the use of long-range missiles.

Sir Keir has said the UK and US have come to a “strong position” in their quest for a resolution to the conflict in Ukraine following his meeting with President Biden on Friday.

The prime minister described his discussions with Mr Biden as “long and productive”, but he would not be drawn on what the pair had decided regarding Ukraine’s potential use of Storm Shadow weapons against Russian targets.

Sir Keir and Biden met in the Blue Room at the White House on Friday (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Russian president Vladimir Putin has warned Nato will be directly at war with Moscow if the US and UK allow Kyiv to use the weapons.

However, Sir Ben Wallace, a former defence secretary under Boris Johnson, said the wrangling over Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles in Russia was only benefiting Vladimir Putin.

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Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, the former army officer said: “I’m just disappointed that it’s yet again another tug of war around another capability. It goes on and on. It started with anti-tank missiles and anti-air missiles, then tanks.”

“All of that delay, all of that tug of war favours Russia and allows Putin to insert, in the delay, threats and new red lines and efforts to divide and rule in the international community,” he added.

Former defence Secretary Ben Wallace (Kirsty O’Connor/PA)

He said Mr Putin was “a bully, and for a bully to succeed all he needs to do is intimidate people, all he needs to do is get people to pause and… that’s how he gets us to change our behaviour”.

Sir Ben added: “I think it is really important, do we want Ukraine to win and and Russia to fail in Ukraine? Yes, we do.

“I understand that is consistently the policy of both the last government and this government in the United Kingdom.”

Following the meeting with Mr Biden, Sir Keir told reporters in the Blue Room at the White House in Washington DC: “We had a wide-ranging discussion about strategy in Ukraine, of course, in the Middle East and other parts of the world.

“This wasn’t a meeting about a particular capability. That wasn’t why we got our heads down today.”

Sir Keir added he was “very pleased” with the discussions.

The meeting came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his frustration at the continued restrictions on the use of Western weaponry against Russian targets.

Mr Zelensky said: “We are now in the third year of a full-scale war. After so much death, destruction, and countless Russian war crimes, Putin can still afford to destroy life in Ukraine as he pleases, buy and produce missiles, bombs and artillery, and issue ultimatums to the world. He expects the world to fall for his madness.

“We need air defence systems like Patriots, which are sufficient in the world and which we have long expected from our partners. Yet, when we ask for these systems, we repeatedly hear, ‘We are working on it.’ Time passes, but Russian missiles and Iranian drones continue to terrorize our skies and our people.”