Stop the War Coalition condemns the firing of British made Storm Shadow missiles into Russia. This and Ukraine’s use of US made Tactical Missile Systems to attack Bryansk risk starting all-out war between Russia and the Western powers, a fact underlined by Ukrainian claims that Russia has fired Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles into Ukraine. These decisions by the US and British governments were made without debate or decision by the US Congress and UK Parliament.
It is clear there can be no winners in this war which has been at a stalemate for many months. Hundreds of thousands of people, mainly Ukrainians, have already been killed or injured, often in trench warfare echoing the horrors of World War One. Not surprisingly, polls are now showing that the majority of Ukrainians want to see a negotiated peace rather than continue to fight.
The current terrifying face-off between Russia and NATO proves that, as Stop the War has warned since the start of the conflict, the huge amounts of Western military aid to Ukraine has turned it into a proxy war with Russia.
This has prolonged the suffering of the Ukrainian people by escalating the conflict and delaying possible diplomatic solutions. It is now taking us to the edge of a wider war between nuclear armed great powers.
We call on Starmer and Biden to stop these provocations immediately and to focus on securing a negotiated end to the war.
