British foreign affairs secretary David Cameron has arrived in Ukraine and made several statements reaffirming the United Kingdom's commitment to supporting Ukraine. He promised that £3 billion in military aid will be allocated each year for "as long as it takes," Reuters reports. Aside from that, he said London has no objections to British-supplied weapons being used for strikes inside the russian territory.
"Ukraine has that right. Just as Russia is striking inside Ukraine, you can quite understand why Ukraine feels the need to make sure it's defending itself," Cameron said in an interview to Reuters journalists.
Read more: Ukraine Won't be Running Short of ATACMS: Production Rates and Stock Estimates
The statement comes as a significant step in Ukraine's relations with its partners that earlier stood against Ukrainian forces utilizing weapon systems provided by Western countries, to attack targets situated within the russian territory. Important to note, not all of them are stationary, some potential russian military assets included S-300/S-400 systems used to shell nearby cities from the other side of the russian border.
That has caused paradoxical situations where russians deployed their forces within the range of Western weapons in Ukraine's possession knowing Kyiv wouldn't be able to use them. The reason is the promise from Ukrainian authorities to refrain from doing so, not an official agreement sealed on paper but a matter of trust between Ukraine and its partners. Briefings at the Pentagon testify that the Ukrainian Armed Forces kept their promise.
At some point, the issue was pressing to the point Ukraine was suggesting that the U.S., as one of the partners insisting on that restriction, would get all information about the targets intended to be struck inside russia. That was back in October 2022, according to anonymous officials asked by CNN, when the United States was still hesitant to provide long-range ATACMS missiles under the pretext these could be used for strikes into russia. By now, the ATACMS supply has been secured but the restriction persists.
Due to the limitations, Ukraine had to develop own ways and weapons for long-range attacks on the russian rear military bases and oil depots, thus leading to the emergence of suicide UAVs such as the Bober, Liutyi, Morok, and more.
With the UK lifting the "veto," Ukraine will be able to use British equipment with no limitations, namely such weapons as the Storm Shadow (otherwise known as SCALP) cruise missile with a range of 250 km.
Worth mentioning, British Foreign Secretary Cameron is not the first to raise the question over the past few days. Yesterday Ukrainian online media European Pravda published an interview with Latvia's Foreign Minister Baiba Braže in which she said some countries had already provided their weapons without conditions to Ukraine, but refused to specify which exactly countries the Latvian official meant.
Read more: Reachable Yet Unharmed: russia's Keeping Helicopters Close to Frontline Knowing ATACMS Strike Won't Come
