Fresh reports confirm that a theory proposed last month is being put into practice: the British state, even more than United States neocons, wants to escalate to full-scale war with Russia and seems to be achieving its aim. This is something the entire world should be deeply concerned about.
In a September 18 video analysis, The Duran reported that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is pursuing a policy of launching long-range missile strikes into Russia, despite the advice of his own Foreign Office – and that of a former U.K. national security adviser.
The U.S. government, whose Ukraine policy is presumed to be directed by former Hillary Clinton campaign adviser Jake Sullivan, has refused to back the move. Yet many British politicians are urging the use of British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles by Ukraine to mount attacks the Russians say will lead to war with NATO.
The Duran’s Alexander Mercouris cites a September 13 interview with the U.K.’s Financial Times, in which Lord Darroch – the former British national security adviser and ambassador to the United States – “warned that allowing long-range Storm Shadow missiles to be fired by Ukraine into Russia risks a major escalation of the conflict.”
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The Storm Shadow missiles, manufactured by France and supplied by Britain, cannot be operated without direct NATO assistance. Russian President Vladimir Putin ominously warned last Thursday that their use would see NATO “at war with Russia.”
Both U.S. President Joe Biden and U.K. Prime Minister Starmer have “brushed off Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threats,” according to Politico, whose report notes that former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former U.K. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps have “piled on the pressure” in a meeting with formerly elected President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev on the same day.
Both Johnson and Shapps are “urging the U.K. and U.S. to let Ukraine use both nations’ long-range missiles, Storm Shadow, SCALP and ATACMS, against targets in Russian territory,” Politico reports, in a meeting which saw Zelensky claim that permitting the NATO-directed strikes could “truly change the course of the war.”
Yet Politico also reports that two unnamed U.K. government sources “voiced doubt that the use of Storm Shadow missiles would be a game-changer in the war” – a position held by Lord Darroch. In his FT interview, he “added that he was not convinced that using Storm Shadow missiles to hit targets in Russia would be a decisive factor in the war.”
Lord Darroch is convinced that the threat of full-scale war is serious, countering the dismissive attitude of the U.S. president and the pro-war U.K. faction.
“… Darroch said that just because Putin had previously not carried through on threats of reprisals when the West supplied battle tanks and missiles to Ukraine, it did not mean the same would apply to cruise missile strikes on his territory,” the FT report said.
“’If they are confident that he’s bluffing, then fine,’ he said. ‘But he’s bluffing until he isn’t.’”
The push to permit long-range missile strikes into Russia will not win the war, Darroch and others say, but may well see the outbreak of a far greater conflict.
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Starmer’s meeting with Biden last Friday saw “the use of the missiles … at the top of the agenda,” said the FT, with a final decision on approval to be determined at a U.N. General Assembly later in September.
Yet The Duran reports that the British war faction may press ahead without U.S. support – or approval.
The Duran’s Alexander Mercouris cites an article in the U.K. Times newspaper of September 16, which states, “Five former defense secretaries and an ex-prime minister have urged Sir Keir Starmer to go ahead unilaterally” with mounting long-range missile strikes into Russia and, as noted below, that has already happened.
The Times report also said that the U.K. “will not go it alone,” however – because according to U.K. government sources, “US guidance systems were seen as crucial to ensuring the missiles hit their targets.”
Despite the headline claiming that “Britain won’t go it alone over long-range missile strikes,” the truth of the matter appears to be it cannot target the missiles without U.S. help – which it aims to secure at the forthcoming U.N. assembly. As the Times concludes,
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“The [U.K.] government believes the US is still likely to give the green light at the UN general assembly in New York, although there are splits within President Biden’s administration.”
With the U.S. presidential election seen as a decisive factor in both U.S. and Russian decision-making, the British effort to escalate the war appears to be a race against the clock, which sees a “lame duck” President Biden soon to be replaced with a new incumbent.
A further report on Sunday the 15th from The Times’ Mark Urban said, “There is, of course, another critical unknown here: the result of November’s US presidential election. The widely held view among Western analysts is that Putin will await the outcome of that before deciding what to do.”
The actions of the British leadership – present and past – appear to confirm former U.K. Foreign Minister David Cameron’s claim that Britain’s Ukraine policy is “fixed” – as it has remained committed to escalation despite a change of government.
The question remains – why are British senior figures pushing for a move which may trigger an all-out war with Russia?
