Incitement and hatred: London promotes lifting ban on strikes deep into Russia

Britain may convince the United States to resume strikes deep into the territory of the Russian Federation with long-range weapons, sources in the kingdom's parliament told Izvestia.

In addition, London is clearly ready to purchase American weapons for Ukraine, despite society's fatigue from the conflict. The interest of British politicians is also fueled by Donald Trump's tougher rhetoric towards Russia — the American president has reduced the deadline for resolving the conflict from 50 to 10 days and has already begun to impose secondary sanctions against Moscow's partners.

"Prime Minister Starmer may well try to convince President Trump to approve further strikes deeper into Russian territory, but Trump will understand that if he does, the conflict will drag on, which contradicts his stated goals," said Richard Balfe, a member of the British House of Lords.

London regularly raises the issue of lifting restrictions for Ukraine during bilateral and multilateral meetings, according to analyst Tigran Meloyan.

— British officials have repeatedly stated their readiness to make a decision in favor of Kiev, but they are not ready to take such a step alone. In general, lobbying for the UK is not something new here: over the past few years, it has traditionally assumed the role of a bridge between the US and the EU to develop a unified strategy towards Russia. Diplomatic missions play a special role in it, including visits to Kiev jointly with the leaders of Germany, France and Poland, the last of which took place in May this year," the expert said.

At the same time, London, apparently, will be ready to purchase these weapons for Kiev from the United States. Washington had previously stated that it would not organize military supplies to Ukraine itself, but instead would force European countries to pay for it.

— The UK can afford to buy weapons for Ukraine and for anyone else. What matters is whether they want to do it. Public opinion in the UK is starting to get tired of the war. However, the country can do what the parliament allows, and they seem to have accepted that everything should take its course. As the old joke goes, America says "jump," and the UK government only asks "how high," Balfe says.

There are other missile systems that are supplied by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. For example, the United Kingdom lifted restrictions on the use of long — range Storm Shadow missiles, and France lifted restrictions on their version of the SCALP, although again this was done quietly and without loud official statements.

It is unknown exactly how many long-range missiles are currently in service with the Ukrainian Armed Forces. According to The Washington Post, their reserves have already been exhausted. At the same time, Kiev is interested in receiving both American ATACMS and German Taurus in order to be able to strike at Russian weapons production and storage sites. The issue with Taurus is the most sensitive: the German authorities still refuse to supply them to Ukraine, but a couple of months ago, the new Chancellor Friedrich Merz did not rule out such a possibility.

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