UK PM must explain if country is at war with Russia – ex-opposition leader

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer must explain to the public whether the country is “at war” with Russia, after media reports that Ukraine used UK-supplied missiles for strikes into Russian territory, former opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn has said.

Various media outlets, including Bloomberg, the BBC, and the Guardian, reported on Wednesday that Ukraine had used Storm Shadow missiles for an attack on Russia’s Kursk Region this week. Use of the missiles has not been confirmed by government officials in Ukraine, the UK, or Russia.

In a post on X, former Labour Party leader Corbyn demanded that Starmer “must tell the British public if this means we are now at war with a nuclear power, what risk this poses to people in Britain, and why this action was taken without any approval from parliament.”

The alleged strike using British-supplied weapons came a day after Kiev launched an attack with US-donated ATACMS ballistic missiles into Russia’s Bryansk Region, following reported authorization by outgoing US President Joe Biden.

Le Figaro reported that the UK and France followed the US by greenlighting attacks with the jointly-produced Storm Shadow/SCALP long-range weapons, although the newspaper later withdrew the claim.

Lifetime anti-war activist Corbyn, whose Labour leadership position was undermined in 2019-2020 by what many described as an internal coup led by Starmer and his allies, stressed that he has long called for a diplomatic resolution of the Ukraine conflict.

“As we edge closer and closer to catastrophe, we should be doing everything in our power to bring about de-escalation and peace,” Corbyn, who is now an independent MP, asserted in his post on Wednesday. “Instead, our political leaders have added fuel to the fire and gambled with people’s lives for political gain.” 

Presidents and Prime Ministers must know that in the event of nuclear war, nobody wins.

The UK has been one of the most vocal supporters of Kiev’s war effort against Russia, including under successive Tory governments. Boris Johnson infamously told the Ukrainians to “just fight,” after Kiev and Moscow agreed a draft truce in the early months of the hostilities. Starmer, who became prime minister after Labour won a snap election in July, has maintained the Conservative stance. 

Moscow perceives the Ukraine conflict as a Western proxy war against Russia. It has warned that attacks by Kiev using foreign-supplied long-range weapons deep into Russia would put the country at war with NATO.