France gives Ukraine green light for long-range missile strikes

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot has said that Ukraine may use French missiles to attack targets in internationally-recognized Russian territory, without confirming whether such strikes have already taken place.

In an interview due to be broadcast by the BBC on Sunday, Barrot said that Paris does “not set and express red lines” on its support for Kiev, and that long-range strikes on Russian soil may be carried out by Ukraine “in the logics of self-defense.”

France has provided Ukraine with an unknown number of SCALP-EG cruise missiles, which Kiev has already been using to attack targets in Crimea and the four former Ukrainian regions that joined the Russian Federation in 2022. The SCALP-EG, known as the Storm Shadow in the UK, is an air-launched British-French cruise missile with a maximum range of 550km (390 miles).

Barrot’s comments came a day after the Ukrainian military confirmed that Storm Shadow missiles were used for the first time in an attack on Russia’s Kursk Region, where Ukrainian troops launched a cross-border invasion in August. Russian air defenses shot down two of the British missiles, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Last weekend, US President Joe Biden reportedly authorized Ukraine to use American-made ATACMS ballistic missiles in long-range strikes on Kursk Region. Within days of Biden’s decision, which has not been officially confirmed by the White House, Russian air defenses intercepted five ATACMS missiles over Bryansk Region, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said. Another one of the American-made missiles was damaged and fell on a military site, the ministry added.

French President Emmanual Macron said in May that he would consider authorizing the use of SCALP-EG missiles on targets deep inside Russia. Earlier this week, Barrot told reporters that Macron remained open to the idea. His comments to the BBC mark the first time that a French official has confirmed that Ukraine may use the missiles for long-range attacks on Russia.

Barrot did not confirm whether such attacks have already taken place.

Russia responded to last week’s ATACMS and Storm Shadow strikes by attacking a military industrial facility in the Ukrainian city of Dnepropetrovsk with a new ballistic missile. The nuclear-capable hypersonic missile called the Oreshnik rained down multiple warheads on the facility at lightning speed, and will be mass produced and incorporated into Russia’s arsenal in the coming months, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

Putin accused the US and NATO of deliberately escalating the conflict, and declared that Russia will achieve all of its military objectives regardless of which weapons systems Kiev uses. Further attacks with Western weapons will result in retaliatory strikes on targets of Moscow’s choosing, he said in a televised speech on Thursday, concluding: “make no mistake: there will always be a response.”