Oleksandr Syrsky, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, said he had a frank exchange of views in a call to the UK’s Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin during which Ukraine’s “Victory Plan” was discussed.
Syrsky said he briefed his British counterpart on frontline developments and the continuing need for long-range strikes against Russian assets “in the operational and strategic depth.”
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“In the course of the conversation, [Syrsky] informed his British colleague about the current strategic situation and the challenges of repelling Russian offensive actions in certain areas of the front.
“The possibility of hitting the enemy’s military facilities in operational and strategic depth was discussed separately. Currently, the British side is working out its own proposals as part of the practical implementation of the Victory Plan,” Syrksy’s said in Wednesday morning’s press release.
Syrsky added that weapon supplies and personnel training, as well as “increasing the effectiveness of the use of high-tech weapons” – likely centered on the provision of British training in the use of precision strike weapons – were the “main pillars of Ukrainian-British military cooperation.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly appealed for the West to lift restrictions on Kyiv using Western long-range weapons to strike targets deep inside Russia,
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particularly airfields that host aircraft used to drop glide bombs onto Ukrainian positions en masse – an appeal the West has thus far rejected out of fear of potential escalation with Moscow.
The clause on the use of long-range weapons is among the main points of Zelensky’s Victory Plan as mentioned by Syrsky.
London has been supplying Storm Shadow cruise missiles, capable of striking Russian airfields in Russian regions bordering Ukraine since 2023, which Kyiv is said to have used to strike Russia’s Black Sea Fleet headquarters in occupied Crimea.
However, it’s believed that lifting restrictions to strike targets inside Russia using Storm Shadows – or its French variant, the SCALP EG cruise missile – would also require approvals from the US as the missiles contain US provided components that are covered by Washington’s International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).
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