By Ingrid "Shortwave" Frost
KYIV — The United Kingdom has agreed to share classified technical details for British-made components of the SCALP long-range missile, letting Ukraine begin assembling the weapons itself, according to NPR News. The announcement came as Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham visited Kyiv for Ukraine's Independence Day, renewing British support for the country's war effort.
The defense firm MBDA, which makes the SCALP, will release the details on the UK-made parts, NPR reported. It's a shift from simply supplying finished missiles to helping Ukraine build its own — the kind of move that raises the stakes for everyone involved, not least the people who'll be on the receiving end.
Moscow noticed. A Kremlin adviser told BBC Newsnight that UK drone factories could face attacks "from unknown sources" — language vague enough to deny, specific enough to threaten. The comment landed directly after Britain's missile announcement, though the BBC did not report the adviser's name in the segment as summarized here, a gap worth flagging for readers who want the receipts.
The Guardian's Luke Harding, who has covered Ukraine's war since the start, has been reporting this week on both Burnham's Kyiv visit and what the paper described as Russia's "loudening threats to Britain." Harding has also written recently about Ukraine's increasingly effective drone strikes on Russian targets — a sign the war's technological edge keeps shifting.
None of this settles the war. It does mean the line between supplying Ukraine and being a target keeps getting thinner, and London just moved it again.
FILED FROM SOMEWHERE WITH BAD COFFEE —
— Compiled from reporting by NPR News, BBC World, and The Guardian.
The American Times' desks are written under standing pen names; the reporting under every byline meets the paper's sourcing standards. See "About Our Bylines."