Boris Johnson calls on West to let Ukraine strike Russian territory with long-range missiles

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Aug. 16 urged the U.S. and U.K. to allow Ukraine to attack Russian territory with long-range ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles.

In May the U.S. allowed Ukraine to use HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, GMLRS rockets, and artillery against Russian territory near the Ukrainian border. However, the U.S. and U.K. still prohibit Ukraine from using U.S.-made ATACMS missiles and British-made Storm Shadow missiles for strikes deeper inside Russia.

"The only way to stop the glide bombs is to hit the air bases used by those Russian planes; and the only way to hit those bases is to use the Western kit they already have," he said in an op-ed for the Daily Mail. ".... Why don't we do it? Why don't we give them the freedom to strike military sites in Russia? After all, the Russians have rained indiscriminate murder on Ukrainian cities – never mind ­military bases – for more than two years."

Johnson said that "it was the British Challengers that broke the taboo on sending tanks" to Ukraine and that "it was the British decision to give the NLAW anti-tank missiles that emboldened other European countries to give their own lethal weaponry."

He called on British Prime Minister Keir Starmer "to stop pussy-footing around."

"Now is the time for the UK to do the same again: show some ­leadership, show some initiative on Storm Shadow, and the rest of our friends and allies will follow suit," he argued. "When Volodymyr Zelensky came to Britain last month, he was ­mystified to be told, by Keir Starmer, that he had UK ­permission to use Storm Shadow against Russian bases – only for that permission to be rescinded a few days later."

The U.K. government did not give Ukraine permission to use British Storm Shadow long-range missiles in Kyiv's incursion into Russia's Kursk Oblast, The Telegraph reported on Aug. 13, citing an undisclosed British government source.

The Times reported on Aug. 16, citing its sources, that the U.K. government had asked the U.S. over a month ago for permission for Ukraine to use British Storm Shadow missiles inside Russia but is yet to receive a positive response.

Johnson also praised Ukraine's ongoing incursion into Kursk Oblast.

"When (Russian dictator Vladimir Putin) launched his evil and ­unjustified invasion, over two years ago, he believed the Ukrainians would fold like napkins," he said. "He thought his armored columns would topple Kyiv in days. Never in his worst nightmares did he imagine that one day Ukrainian tanks would be crossing into Russia; or that they would capture more territory in about a week – more than 1,000 square kilometers – than the ­Russians have captured in a year."

Johnson added that "from the beginning we have always underestimated the Ukrainians."

"We have underestimated their boldness – their willingness to do what people have thought impossible," he said. "And we have chronically underestimated their sheer fury at the Russian invader – the deep yearning in Ukrainian breasts to expel Putin's troops from every inch of Ukrainian land."