UK ‘preventing peace’ by giving missile info to Ukraine
MOSCOW
Britain's prime minister Andy Burnham lays a wreath of flowers at the tomb of the unknow soldier during a ceremony at Ukraine's national military memorial cemetery in Hatne, southwest of Kyiv on August 24, 2026. (AFP photo)
The Kremlin said on Aug. 24 that the United Kingdom was preventing peace in Ukraine by handing Kiev information needed to produce SCALP long-range missiles and threatened to destroy plants manufacturing them.
“Britain is methodically and regularly throwing oil on the fire and methodically and regularly plotting schemes to prevent even the slightest progress in the peace process,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, adding Russia would target and “destroy” facilities producing the missile in Ukraine.
Kremlin’s remarks came as Ukraine is hosting a meeting of its key European backers to press for critical air defense supplies and more pressure on Moscow.
The meeting of the Coalition of the Willing is jointly chaired by leaders of France and Germany, who participated remotely, and U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who was in Kiev for his first trip abroad since taking office.
Burnham last week announced that Britain had “agreed that defense firm MBDA can release classified information on UK components for the long-range missile, SCALP, to establish local assembly lines in Ukraine.”
The missile is the French-produced version of the U.K.’s Storm Shadow, with both using shared French and British technology.
The U.K. was first to gift Ukraine long-range strike weapons for defensive purposes in 2023, according to the premier’s Downing Street office.
It said that the decision to release the classified information would “allow the French and Ukrainians to move forward with the Ukrainian assembly of the missile.”
“It also complements the major U.K. effort to rapidly develop low-cost advanced long-range strike weapons for Ukraine through Project Brakestop,” it added.
The leaders of Luxembourg, Moldova, Estonia and EU Council President Antonio Costa are also in Kiev for the talks hosted on Ukraine’s Independence Day and which come amid the war’s latest escalation.
“Right now, things are really very difficult for all of us. But there is a force holding us firmly by the hand,” Zelensky said in his address, adding: “It is the strength of our mutual circle.”
He called on allies to give Ukraine “everything it needs to stop this war," after Russia has recently pounded Kiev with ballistic missiles, ripping open apartment blocks and killing dozens in the capital.
Meanwhile, the European Union said on Aug. 24 that it had released another 6.1 billion euros ($7.1 billion) in military aid for Ukraine to boost its air defenses against Russian missile attacks.
“On Ukraine’s Independence Day, we show our unfaltering support. Today, we approved EUR6.1 billion for the air and missile defense systems, missiles, ammunition and radars that Ukraine urgently needs,” European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on X.
“With 376 missile strikes recorded in July alone, reinforcing Ukraine’s defenses has become increasingly urgent,” the EU commission said in a separate statement.