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President Joe Biden and Sir Keir Starmer came together for talks in the White House on Friday night under growing pressure from both Ukraine and Russia over the potential use of long-range missiles in the war.
The leaders met under the shadow of nuclear threats from Vladimir Putin and desperate demands from Volodymyr Zelensky, who wants to be allowed to use Storm Shadow weapons at targets in Russia.
No final decision was made during the talks on the use of Storm Shadow missiles by Ukraine, according to Politico. After the meeting Sir Keir said the issue will be taken up again at the UN General Assembly at the end of this month. “We’ll obviously pick up again in UNGA in just a few days time with a wider group of individuals,” he said.
But their talks were overshadowed by:
- Putin expelling six UK diplomats from Moscow, accusing them of spying.
- The Russian president also threatening that permission to use the missiles would mean Russia would be “at war with Nato”, while reminding Starmer and Biden that Russia is a nuclear power.
- Zelensky warning that delay is costing lives of Ukrainian citizens.
- Russia remained silent on international condemnation for targeting a Ukrainian cargo ship carrying wheat in the Black Sea.
- Experts warned against Starmer and Biden backing down to Russian aggression
Speaking to journalists in the Blue Room in the White House during a break in their meeting a bad tempered Biden scolded Sky News for asking a question but in response to concerns about Putin’s nuclear threat, he said: “I don’t think much about Vladimir Putin.”
The meeting had originally been set for two hours and reduced to 90 minutes before Starmer’s arrival and then curtailed further as the two leaders avoided making a final decision on the crucial issue of the Storm Shadow missiles.
However, even as Mr Biden and Sir Keir prepared to meet, President Zelensky increased the pressure with a direct plea via X to the two leaders.
Mr Zelensky also praised the past actions of Boris Johnson, who he met on Friday at a summit in Kyiv.
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.”
Adding to the pressure on Sir Keir and Mr Biden, Mr Johnson said: “It is vital that Ukraine should be able to defend itself properly by stopping the appalling Russian attacks with glide bombs and now Iranian missiles. It is obvious that they should be able to use Storm Shadow, Scalp and ATACMS as fast as possible against targets in Russia itself.”
Mr Zelensky also held talks on Friday with foreign secretary David Lammy and US secretary of state Antony Blinken in Kyiv.
But even as the prime minister and his team crossed the Atlantic, Mr Putin threatened war with Nato if it agreed to the use of storm shadow missiles on targets in Russia.
This was followed by the dramatic expulsion of six British diplomats from Moscow.
The Storm Shadow missiles have a range of at least 250km (155 miles) and Britain and France have given stocks to Ukraine but not yet given permission for them to be used on targets in Russia. Permission also needs US logistical support but Mr Zelensky sees it as essential for stopping the long range attacks by Mr Putin’s forces.
Before landing in Washington, Sir Keir had struck a defiant note over Mr Putin’s threats of war.
He told journalists: “It was Russia who started this in the first place. They caused the conflict, they’re the ones who are acting unlawfully. And Ukraine obviously has the right to self-defence.
“What I want to do is make sure that those discussions, tactical discussions, are set in the proper strategic context of the situation in Ukraine. And there are, equally, tactical issues in relation to the Middle East, which need to be set in a context which is strategic, not just tactical.”
On the diplomatic expulsions, a Foreign Office spokesperson said: “The accusations made today by the FSB against our staff are completely baseless. The Russian authorities revoked the diplomatic accreditation of six UK diplomats in Russia last month, following action taken by the UK government in response to Russian state directed activity across Europe and the UK. We are unapologetic about protecting our national interests.”
Meanwhile, former First Sea Lord Admiral Lord West warned against the UK and US backing down to Russian aggression “after all this hype”.
“Because the message it would give to Putin is: ‘ah they do have to obey my red lines’ – and that’s a bad message,” he said.
“We’re talking here about risks that are immense, just immense risks, and people have got to think very carefully, sensibly and in a calm way about these and need to think about all reactions if certain things happen. And I’m not sure always that’s the case. Being gung-ho about major wars between say Russia and Nato – that is not clever.”
John Foreman, who served as UK defence attaché in Moscow from 2019 to 2022: added: “We don’t have great insight to Putin’s decision making ... nor reliably predict how he will actually react.
“This plus Russia’s skewed threat perceptions and the lack of diplomatic channels has raised US concerns about risk of unintended escalation. These can’t be dismissed out of hand or wished away.”
Putin critic Sir Bill Browder, head of the Global Magnitsky Justice campaign, dismissed Mr Putin’s threats: “Good luck to him if he wants to go to war with Nato. He would lose that war in a matter of days.
“In my opinion all of his red line talk is complete nonsense. He doesn’t have the capacity to win against an ill-equipped, poor neighbour – he certainly doesn’t have capacity to win a war with Nato. So this is all bluster, as far as I can see.”
Oleksandr Vasiuk, MP for the partly Russian-occupied Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia, warned that Moscow is now actively moving its military assets – frequently used to strike Ukraine – deeper into Russian territory to evade Kyiv’s forces.
“Any delay or prohibition on the use of long-range Western missiles only complicates the situation for Ukrainian forces,” said Mr Vasiuk.
An adviser to the Ukrainian presidential administration, who asked not to be named, told The Independent that Kyiv had long been using Ukrainian-manufactured weapons to strike military bases and oil refineries deep inside Russia, while using Western weapons to hit Ukrainian regions Mr Putin now claims are part of Russia.
“So, according to their logic, we and the West have already crossed that ‘red line’ despite all their previous threats to retaliate against the West. They didn’t then and they will not now,” said the aide, adding that he doubted “even a demented Putin” would seriously countenance a war with Nato.
