Ukraine fires British missiles into Russia in dangerous escalation

Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine

Ukrainian forces have fired British-made Storm Shadow missiles into Russian territory for the first time.

Britain approved their use inside Russia just days after Joe Biden authorised Ukraine to use US missiles against Russian territory in a dangerous escalation of the war.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has warned that the use of US and British-made missiles inside Russia’s borders would be tantamount to Nato entering into a direct conflict. 

Biden hopes to lock-in US support for the war in Ukraine after he steps down as president in January. 

Donald Trump wants the US to focus on China—US imperialism’s greatest competitor—and cut its losses in Ukraine.

Biden’s move is another confirmation that Ukraine is a proxy war between two imperialist powers. Ukraine is a battleground for the rival ambitions of the West—the US, Nato, the European Union—and Russia.

The tempo of the war is set in US and European capitals, not by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.

Biden saw Ukraine as an opportunity to weaken Russia and send a signal to the US’s main competitor China. “There’s going to be a new world order out there and we’ve got to lead it,” he told a group of business leaders shortly after the invasion.

The US strategy was to “bleed Russia dry” through a “managed escalation”—giving Ukraine enough arms to tie down Russia forces without risking a wider conflict.

But, despite over £100 billion in US aid, Ukraine is an abattoir of imperial ambition with no victory in sight.

The danger of escalation is still built into the situation with Ukraine and sections of the ruling class in the West demanding to go further.

In Britain, the Labour government joined in the warmongering. Defence secretary John Healey said, “The prime minister has been clear that we must double down on the support for Ukraine, give Ukraine the support that it needs and do so for as long as it takes.

“In doing so we will continue our close co-operation with the US and allies in providing that support to Ukraine.”

He dismissed that using Western-supplied missiles to hit targets in Russia would escalate the conflict. “The one person responsible for escalation in this conflict is President Putin, the one side that has been escalating in recent months is Russia,” he claimed.

The left should oppose imperialism east and west and demand—Russian troops out, no to Nato.

Join the workplace day of action

The day workplace of action on 28 November, called by the Stop The War (STW), is an opportunity to hit back at the warmongers.

Lindsey German, STW convenor, said, “Biden wants to go out with a bang at the end of his failed presidency and the danger is he will take a lot of us with him.

“It’s clearly a policy shift to try to make it as difficult and costly as possible for the new Trump administration to try to end the war.

“That the actual missile hits have to be authorised by US personnel risks bringing America into direct conflict with Russia.”