France to supply ‘Scalp’ long-range missiles to Ukraine

France will provide Ukraine with SCALP long-range cruise missiles to help Kyiv’s forces strike targets deep behind Russian lines, President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday. Arriving at a NATO summit focused on Kyiv’s battle against Moscow’s invasion, Macron said Paris would send the SCALP missile, already supplied by London under the name “Storm Shadow”. Macron said the new missile delivery was designed to allow Ukraine to strike at Russian forces “in depth” during its counteroffensive to liberate its territory. The SCALP/Storm Shadow is an Anglo-French weapon with a range of 250 kilometers (155 miles) – the longest of any Western weapon supplied to Ukraine so far – and Britain announced in May that it would supply a batch of the advanced weapons. Russia reacted with fury, warning that London risked being dragged directly into the conflict, and even some Western allies were concerned that Kyiv might conduct strikes into Russia itself. Macron implied, however, that Ukraine had given an undertaking not to use SCALP against such targets, saying that they had been given “in coherence with our doctrine, that is to say to permit Ukraine to defend its own territory.” Macron did not say how many of the missiles would be sent, but France is understood to have an arsenal of less than 400, according to specialist defense review DSI. The Kremlin said it would respond to the decision by France to supply Kyiv with long-range missiles that could help Ukraine strike targets deep behind Russian lines. “From our point of view, this decision is a mistake with consequences for the Ukrainian side, because this will of course force us to take countermeasures,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.