The new British Prime Minister signaled Ukraine can use British Storm Shadow missiles to strike targets of its choice.

Keir Starmer said this while answering a question from a Bloomberg journalist during his trip to the NATO summit in Washington.

According to him, “missiles should obviously be used in accordance with international humanitarian law, as should be expected.”

“But it is up to Ukraine to decide how to use them for these defense purposes,” he said.

Commenting on Russia’s attack on the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv, Starmer stated that it was “an absolutely shocking, horrific attack” that provided “a very important, albeit tragic, backdrop to this summit.” “It is everyone’s duty to describe it that way,” he added.

“My message to President Putin is this: this NATO summit should be seen as a clear and united determination of the allies to support Ukraine and other countries to resist Russian aggression,” the Prime Minister emphasized.

These words are Starmer’s first statement confirming that the new administration will adhere to the policy of supporting Ukraine.

The new statements echo the words of his predecessor, Rishi Sunak, who never explicitly stated that he allowed Ukraine to use Storm Shadow missiles to launch strikes on Russian territory but implied that Kyiv decided how to deploy them.

At the same time, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed that if the UK allows Ukraine to fire missiles at Russian territory, it would be an “irresponsible step toward escalation” and threatened that Russia would respond.

As previously reported, the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence plans to invest in accelerating the production of Storm Shadow cruise missiles.

The Italian government is also transferring Storm Shadow cruise missiles to Ukraine. The first batch of these missiles was ordered for the Italian military in 1999.

According to unofficial data, the Italian Air Force has received 200 Storm Shadow missiles.