by Richard Vaughan, Joe Duggan and Hugo Gye

As news broke that Ukraine had they used British-made Storm Shadow missiles for the first time on Russian soil, Sir Keir Starmer was flying back from the G20, engaging in a major diplomatic push with world leaders.

Despite the seriousness of the news, taking Britain’s involvement in the conflict a step further, the prime minister’s advisers erected a wall of silence, refusing to confirm or deny the use of missiles, although images appearing on the internet were widely shared. to show fragments of advanced artillery found in Russia.

Both Downing Street and the Ministry of Defense have maintained the line that they would not comment on the “operational details” of the UK’s use of Storm Shadows or US-made ATACMs.

The refusal to comment should be seen as part of a wider diplomatic dance that has seen Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron take leading roles in trying to woo Russia’s allies and further isolate Moscow.

The most appealing of the nearly dozen bilateral meetings that they The Prime Minister met with President Xi Jinping of Chinathe first between the two countries’ leaders for six years, and one in which both spoke of their desire to forge stronger economic ties, particularly around green technology.

It came when no. 10 announced his intention to resume trade talks with India during the Rio summit, just as Starmer told Prime Minister Narendra Modi he wanted to take Britain’s relationship with India to “another level”. He later announced that Brazil would issue all future environmental and social sovereign bonds on the London Stock Exchange following his meeting with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

But the diplomatic push also represents a gamble, with Starmer offering peace with one hand while agreeing to Ukraine’s use of Storm Shadows and engaging British forces in NATO military exercises with the other.

This month, NATO conducted its largest artillery exercise ever, Dynamic Front, taking place in Finland, Estonia, Germany, Romania and Poland, involving thousands of soldiers from 28 nations.

It saw British personnel among 5,000 troops taking part in training exercises in Lapland, Finland, on the outskirts of the Arctic Circle, learning how to fight in the most extreme conditions.

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