Russian servicemen fire a Russian Giatsint-S self-propelled gun toward Ukrainian positions on Wednesday as fighting entered an eighth day in a counter-offensive in which Ukraine claims it has penetrated more than 20 miles into Russian territory. Britain has clarified that Ukraine can use weapons it has supplied to it on Russian soil. Photo courtesy Russian Defense Ministry/EPA-EFE
Aug. 15 (UPI) — Ukrainian forces are authorized to use British-supplied weapons in their ground offensive on western Russia, London indicated on Thursday.
The Ministry of Defense said its policy was that Ukraine had the right to use the weapons to defend itself, including on Russian territory, provided it does not breach international law.
The waiver did not, however, apply to Anglo-French-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles — a caveat the new Labor government reiterated within days of taking office July 5.
“There has been no change in U.K. Government policy, under Article 51 of the U.N. Charter Ukraine has a clear right of self-defense against Russia’s illegal attacks, that does not preclude operations inside Russia,” an MoD spokesman said.
“We make clear during the gifting process that equipment is to be used in line with international law,” he added.
Battles between Russian forces and invading Ukrainian mechanized units pushing into Russia’s Kursk region after crossing the border on Aug. 6 could now be fought with anti-tank missiles, artillery, armored vehicles and other weapons gifted by Britain.
The BBC reported that some of the 13 surviving Challenger-2 main battle tanks donated to Kyiv by Britain have already seen action in Ukraine’s ground incursion which Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky said had penetrated 22 miles into Russian territory and controlled 82 settlements over a 444-square-mile area.
Syrsky said “a military commandant’s office” led by a senior military leader had been established to fill a power vacuum in the areas of Russia now occupied by Ukraine.
“To maintain law and order and meet the immediate needs of the population, a military commandant’s office has been created on the territories controlled. Maj. Gen. [Eduard] Moskalyov has been appointed to lead it,” Syrskyi said in a video update to a military staff meeting posted on President Volodymyr Zelensky‘s X account.
“The situation is under control in general,” he told the president.
Moscow claimed the opposite, saying its forces had inflicted signifcant losses on Ukrainian forces and were gaining the upper hand.
The state-run news agency TASS reported that the Russian Armed Forces’ North battlegroup had pushed back an assault near Kremyanoye on Wednesday, retaken the village of Krupets and rained heavy fire on Ukrainian units deployed to the west of Russkaya.
The report also claimed the Russian army blocked efforts by an AFU mobile unit to break through deeper into Russian territory in six other areas including the Varvarovka and Alekseevsky in neighboring Belgorod province where the governor declared a state of emergency Wednesday.
It also struck Ukrainian forces in Olgovka, Snagosti, Pogrebki, Mirny, Zaoleshenka, Uspenovka and Yuzhny and used a short-range, tactical ballistic missile to take out a military convoy and 15 fuel tankers in a cross-border attack near Lubny in the Sumy province.
“Kyiv lost up to 340 servicemen and 19 armored vehicles, including five Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and 14 armored combat vehicles, as well as eight vehicles, five field artillery guns, a multiple rocket launcher and two electronic warfare stations,” according to the report.
Britain is the third largest military backer of Ukraine after the United States and Germany, contributing $9.76 billion of hardware, equipment and munitions in the two-and-half-years to June 30.