British Storm Shadow Missiles Reportedly Fired at Russia’s Kursk

Ukraine reportedly fired British Storm Shadow cruiser missiles into Russia’s Kursk region Wednesday afternoon. 

According to a Russian milblogger, Ukraine fired the missiles into the Kursk village of Marino, where locals began sharing photos depicting purported fragments from the missiles. 

“We are informed that since [2:50 p.m.] the enemy has fired up to 12 Storm Shadow missiles at the region, fragments of which are in the photo in the settlement of Marino,” reads a Telegram update by pro-Kremlin milblogger Dva Mayora. 

Kyiv Post cannot verify the authenticity of the images. 

Backing up the milbloggers account, an unnamed Western official confirmed the launch to Bloomberg. 

Circumstances around the alleged Storm Shadow use, such as what they were intended to hit and whether they were successful isn’t clear.

The news came amidst speculations that London had also greenlit Kyiv’s use of Storm Shadows inside Russia following the US’s similar approval on Sunday for its ATACMS missiles. 

The UK requires US approval to allow Kyiv’s deep strikes inside Russia using Storm Shadows since they contain US-provided components under Washington’s International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), as Kyiv Post reported earlier.

After Washington’s approval, Ukraine fired ATACMS into Russia’s Belgorod region at an ammo depot on Tuesday. 

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Kyiv had for months appealed to Washington to lift the long-standing restrictions imposed due to a fear of escalation, arguing the restrictions left it unable to strike Russia’s threats from their source. 

What is Storm Shadow? 

The Storm Shadow is a subsonic air-launched cruise missile designed to strike pre-planned stationary targets. It was developed in the 1990s by MBDA, a joint venture between British and French defense companies. 

France also supplied Ukraine with the French variant known as the SCALP-EG.

The missile is powered by a turbojet engine with a range exceeding 250 kilometers (155 miles), according to the MBDA website. It is a fire-and-forget missile aided by a combination of GPS, terrain-referenced navigation (TRN), and internal inertial navigation systems (INS) that allow it to follow the path semi-autonomously, where it then gains altitude and switches to an infrared (IR) camera to match the target stored image upon final impact.

According to former British Defense Minister Ben Wallace, kn May 2023, Kyiv received the first batch of Storm Shadow long range cruise missiles from the UK, making them among the first long-range missiles provided by its allies. 

A video published by the Ukrainian Air Force on Facebook implied that a Storm Shadow missile, deployed using a Su-24 jet, was used in an attack on the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol that destroyed the Rostov-on-Don submarine and Minsk landing ship.