Davey calls for Ukraine to be allowed use of Western weapons to strike in Russia

Ukraine should be allowed to use Western weapons to strike inside Russia, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has said.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said on Sunday morning that talks are continuing with the US and allies about giving Kyiv permission to use UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles to hit Russian airbases and military sites which are being used to launch attacks on Ukraine.

Speaking later in the day at the party’s autumn conference, Sir Ed said there are “difficult judgments” to be made.

But he told a Q&A session: “Fundamentally I have come to the view that we should allow President (Volodymyr) Zelensky and Ukraine to use those long range weapons to attack Russian military bases in Russia.”

He said he is “not privy to all of the intelligence and the briefings”, and later added: “If we have to do it unilaterally I think we should.”

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Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that allowing long-range strikes “would mean that Nato countries, the United States, and European countries are at war with Russia”.

There have been intensive UK-US diplomatic talks in Kyiv and Washington in the past week which have so far failed to produce a decision.

It comes after Mr Lammy told Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme: “Putin said ‘don’t send tanks’. We sent them.

“Putin said ‘don’t send any missiles’. We sent them.

“Putin threatens every few months to use nuclear weapons.

“What he should now do is cease his aggression and leave Ukraine.”