UK to help Ukraine build Storm Shadow missiles at home; Kremlin says it is already hunting the future factories
On Ukraine's 35th independence anniversary, Britain announced it will share technology to produce long-range Storm Shadow missiles in Ukraine, prompting the Kremlin to say Russian forces are already working to locate the planned production sites.
Ukraine marked the 35th anniversary of its independence on August 24, with leaders from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Romania, Moldova and Luxembourg traveling to Kyiv for the occasion. Among them was Britain's new prime minister, Andy Burnham, making his first official visit to the country.
During the trip, Britain's Defense Ministry said it would give Ukraine the technology to manufacture long-range Storm Shadow missiles domestically — weapons identical in design to France's SCALP missile, since the two were developed jointly. A day before, London had authorized defense firm MBDA to share classified details about the missile's British-made components, as Kyiv and Paris look to establish local assembly lines. France first pledged in mid-July to license Ukraine to produce the missiles.
Meduza's Explainers desk notes the announcement functions largely as a symbolic gesture, given France's earlier pledge covering essentially the same weapon. Building missiles of this complexity requires full-scale factories capable of producing jet engines, rocket fuel and guidance systems — unlike the small, dispersed, camouflaged sites where Ukraine currently builds drones. Ukraine has previously been granted licenses for complex weapons along with promises to build local factories, but such plants have repeatedly gone uncompleted or been destroyed by Russian strikes, including a Kyiv facility meant to produce Turkish Bayraktar drones under license.
Ahead of his visit, Burnham released a message to Ukrainians pledging that UK support would not waver, saying Ukraine's security is Britain's security and that the two countries' partnership would outlast Russia's war.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow views the plan "extremely negatively," accusing Britain of taking part in the war on Kyiv's side, and said Russian forces are already working to identify the future missile production sites.
In his own address marking the anniversary, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky highlighted Ukraine's long-range strikes on targets inside Russia and its domestically produced FP-5 Flamingo cruise missiles. He also called on China to stop staying silent about nuclear threats from Russia.
