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[global times comprehensive report] since the outbreak of the russian-ukrainian conflict in 2022, the united states and some european countries have provided ukraine with a large number of weapons assistance, including long-range missiles, and have continuously relaxed the conditions for the use of these weapons. according to the guardian, the united kingdom has decided to allow ukraine to use the "storm shadow" cruise missile against targets in russia.

according to a report by the british broadcasting corporation (bbc) on the 11th, the range of storm shadow is about 250 kilometers. after being launched from a fighter plane, it can fly at a speed close to the speed of sound, and its high-explosive warhead can penetrate solid bunkers. it is reported that britain and france have delivered this missile to ukraine, but previously required kiev to only launch it at targets within its territory. military analyst and former british army officer justin crump analyzed that storm shadow is an effective weapon for ukraine and can accurately strike "well-protected targets in occupied territories."

in addition to storm shadow, ukraine also received a long-range version of the army tactical missile system (atacms) from the united states in april this year, with a range of more than 300 kilometers. previously, the united states only delivered a medium-range version of atacms to ukraine, with a range of about 160 kilometers. the international institute for strategic studies (iiss), a us think tank, believes that the long-range version of atacms further enhances the ukrainian army's ability to strike russian military targets.

the institute for the study of war (isw), a u.s. military think tank, recently released a report stating that more than 200 known military and paramilitary targets in russia are within the range of ukraine's atacms. as the united states may allow ukraine to use the long-range version of atacms to attack targets in russia, isw has observed that 16 russian air bases within the range of the missile have deployed aircraft to bases out of range.

the russian newspaper "moscow komsomolets" stated that the defense of russian territory must be comprehensive, from preventing the enemy from using weapon systems to intercepting missiles that have been launched against us. the air defense forces will be responsible for the last line of defense with modern air defense systems such as "armor-s", s-400 and the latest s-500. the russian liberty media quoted military experts as saying that although ukraine has western long-range missiles, the problem is that they need to be launched from aircraft, and kiev does not have many aircraft. as for the atacms launched from the ground, it has been shot down by the russian army many times. however, the media also stated that there is no airtight defense network. (zhao jueyun)