On May 11, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace confirmed that the government is supplying long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles to Ukraine in what he claimed was a "calibrated and proportionate response" by London to the situation in Ukraine. Once again Britain is the first to supply such longer-range missiles to Ukraine in the proxy war Britain is waging against Russia in Ukraine alongside the US, Germany and other NATO countries. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also announced on May 15 the supply of hundreds more missiles and long-range attack drones when he met with President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelenskyy at Chequers who was on a "whistle stop" tour of Paris, Berlin and Rome. It was only at the end of March that the British government chose the day of 20th anniversary of their illegal war against Iraq to announce that it was the first country to supply the depleted uranium (DU) shells to Ukraine. [1]

Storm Shadow is an air launched missile, with a range of 155 miles which was developed from 1994 by French company Matra and British Aerospace Dynamics. Since 2001 it has been manufactured by MBDA Missile Systems as a joint venture of British, French and Italian arms manufactures - BAE systems, Airbus and Leonardo [2]. It had been previously reported that several Storm Shadow weapons have already been delivered and there are already reports that such missiles have hit civilian areas in Lugansk which had previously been out of range to the Ukraine missiles. Russia's Ministry of Defence has just announced that seven of the missiles have already been shot down, while Western-made munitions and 22 drones have also been intercepted.

In their statements, Britain and the US said that the Storm Shadow missiles will not be used outside "Ukrainian sovereign territory". However, the real intentions of the US and Britain in Ukraine are revealed in their statements and treaties with the Kiev regime, that Crimea is considered by them to fall within the term Ukraine's "sovereign territory". In other words, one key aim for Britain and the US in supplying these long-range missiles is to use their Ukraine proxy war to attack Crimea and Russia's Black Sea Fleet and the Crimean bridge. The longing to occupy Crimea and the Black Sea countries, Russian territory, by a regime allied with Anglo/US forces is a dangerous dream for world hegemony that goes back centuries with Britain's infamous Crimean War against Russia.

The US as well as the old European powers of the EU and Britain, hope that they can make gains by laying waste to Ukraine in this proxy war against Russia and this is the continuation of their record of direct interference in Ukraine since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Especially with the western supported Maidan coup in Kiev in 2014, Britain with its dominant arms industry has taken this to another level with the arms makers making huge gains out of the conflict in Ukraine. They care not for peace, or of the danger of this catastrophic war which is aimed at the peoples of the region.

Unmanned drone used in Ukraine, manufactured by Qinetiq

The fuelling of the conflict by the US, Britain and others does not respect international law, but can be seen in the context of the US-led "rules-based international order" with the danger of further escalation globally. Before Russia's military operation, the US and Britain directed the Ukrainian regime for their own ends to repeatedly refuse to implement the UN backed Minsk agreements [3] on Donbas. They threatened Russia in the Black Sea and with their military and strategic agreements with Ukraine egged on the Ukrainian regime in Kiev to seize these territories of Crimea and Donbas that Ukraine had never controlled since their Maidan coup in 2014. In doing so, they dismissed the claims of the people of Crimea and Sevastopol, Donbas and Ukraine for a peaceful resolution of these issues, a claim of the people which is backed by established international law following World War II. The sovereign rights of nations and peoples, irrespective of ethnic make-up, can only be resolved by the peoples themselves and not by this so-called "rules-based international order" imposed by NATO and particularly by the US and Britain who recognise "sovereign territories" when it suits their interests and flout nations' sovereignty when that suits their interests.

We call on the working class and people of Britain to continue to condemn and step up their opposition to the warmongering actions of the British government, and to reject the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine as serving the interests of the US and NATO in their proxy war against Russia. Such a stand is vital for the future peaceful development of the world under the control of the people themselves.

No to NATO! No to War!

Notes
1. 20th Anniversary of the Anglo-US Invasion of Iraq
Anglo-US-led NATO Block is Still "Not In Our Name"
http://www.rcpbml.org.uk/wwie-23/ww23-09/ww23-09-01.htm
2. According to their website MBDA is the only European group capable of designing and producing missiles and missile systems to meet the whole range of current and future needs of the three armed forces. (Britain, France and Italy)
https://www.mbda-systems.com/about-us/
3. Minsk - The UN agreements required negotiations between the two republics and the Ukraine government, which have never occurred.
https://comw.org/pda/fulltext/UNSC-Res-2202-Minsk.pdf

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