- Ukraine’s defense ministry tweeted that its Storm Shadow missiles have hit “100%” of their targets.
- Britain gave Ukraine the missiles in May after Ukraine asked for longer-range weapons.
- However, Russia also claims it’s intercepted two of the Storm Shadow missiles, per Reuters.
Ukraine’s defense ministry said that its long-range Storm Shadow missiles, given by Britain, have successfully hit all their Russian targets.
“Storm Shadow long-range missiles have hit 100% of the targets identified by the General Staff,” the ministry tweeted on Sunday, attributing the information to Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov.
—Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) May 28, 2023
The UK gave Ukraine the missiles in May after Ukraine’s calls for longer-range weapons.
The Storm Shadow missiles have a range of over 155 miles, per MBDA, a European missiles developer and manufacturer. In comparison, the US-built satellite-guided HIMARS missiles have a reach of 50 miles.
The strikes come ahead of Ukraine’s long-awaited counter-offensive to reclaim swathes of Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia.
Ukraine owning the Storm Shadow missiles is predicted to have a “terrible effect on morale for the Russian forces, and officers and commanders who are going to be operating within Ukraine,” George Barros, a Russia analyst at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank, told Insider’s Jake Epstein.
News of the Storm Shadow missile strikes comes after Ukraine reported that it had shot down six of Russia’s Kinzhal missiles on May 16 — weapons that Russia had previously claimed were “unstoppable.”
Russia’s position in the war has “never looked weaker,” following the news of the Kinzhal missiles being shot down, Fabian Hoffmann, a defense and nuclear strategy researcher, told Sky News on May 18.
However, Russia claimed that it had intercepted two of Ukraine’s new Storm Shadow missiles, along with a shorter-range U.S.-built HIMARS launcher, HARM missiles, and 12 drones, per a report by Reuters on Saturday.
Ukraine’s defense ministry did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment sent outside regular business hours.
