Is the Ukraine conflict turning into a world war involving Britain? If so, shouldn’t there be more open discussion about it? I mention this because British Storm Shadow long range missiles have been used by Ukraine inside Russian territory. Yesterday, the Russian ambassador to London, Andrei Kelin, declared that “Britain and the UK is now directly involved in this war, because this firing [of Storm Shadow] cannot happen without Nato staff, British staff as well”. In other words, Russia draws a distinction between sending tanks to Ukraine as Britain has done, and the use of long range missiles which require Nato operatives to function.
It is an escalation of Britain’s involvement in the conflict and, as such, it should have merited a full debate in the House of Commons, and a vigorous public discussion by defence chiefs and defence ministers in papers such as this. Support for Ukraine against a self-evident war of aggression by Russia is one thing; open ended financial and military support without any concomitant peace plan is another. Bluntly, Britain cannot afford that open-ended support; it is beyond the country’s means.
