Britain says Ukraine can use donated weapons inside Russia

British weapons can be used by Ukrainian forces in operations on Russian territory, Britain's Ministry of Defence said on Thursday, but restrictions on the use of long-range Storm Shadow missiles remain.

In the last two weeks, Ukraine has carried out the biggest foreign attack on sovereign Russian territory since World War II, which one Ukrainian official has said is designed to create a buffer zone to protect its population against attack.

Britain's then foreign minister David Cameron said in May that Ukraine had a right to use weapons provided by London to strike targets inside Russia, but the government had not commented before on Ukraine's use of the donated weapons by ground forces on Russian territory.

Setting out the use of weapons deliveries in some of the most explicit terms to date, a spokesperson for Britain's Ministry of Defence said that Ukraine had a "clear right of self-defence against Russia's illegal attacks" and "that does not preclude operations inside Russia".

"We make clear during the gifting process that equipment is to be used in line with international law," the spokesperson said.

The policy means that British tanks, anti-tank missiles, and other military equipment given to Ukraine can be used inside Russia as part of Ukraine's defence against Russia's invasion.

Restrictions on the use of British supplied long-range Storm Shadow missiles, which can only be used within Ukraine's internationally accepted borders, remain in place.

Using swarms of drones, heavy artillery and tanks, Ukraine says it has captured more than 1,000sqkm of Russian territory since August 6 in a move that Russian leader Vladimir Putin called a "major provocation".

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy again this week urged Western allies to permit long-range missile strikes into Russia.

• World