Britain has appealed to a group of European countries to express interest in supplying Ukraine with missiles with a range of up to 300km, which would be another major step in Kiev’s military support against a Russian invasion.

The call for a response from companies that can supply such missiles was included in a notice posted last week by the International Fund for Ukraine – a group of countries that includes Britain, Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden – set up to send weapons in Kiev.

The British Ministry of Defence, which manages the fund, has asked companies to get in touch if they are able to supply land-, sea- and air-launched missiles with payloads between 20 and 490kg.

The notice contained other attractive requirements, such as “low probability of interception”, “mission planning capability” and “air defense penetration methods to increase the probability of a successful strike”. The notice stated that responding companies would be able to be contacted from June 5.

British official says no final decision has been made to send missiles with these capabilities to Ukraine

The Washington Post published details of the procurement announcement earlier today.

Britain and other Western countries have increased their pledges of military aid to Ukraine this year.

Britain said in January it might send 14 of its Challenger 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine. Other countries including the United States and Germany subsequently pledged to supply Ukraine with tanks.

Yuriy Shak, an adviser to Ukraine’s defense minister, told Reuters that Kiev had no specific information about Britain’s efforts to supply Ukraine with long-range missiles, but that Ukraine had been appealing to Western governments for months to supply it with long range weapons.

“We would welcome this if the UK took the lead on long-range missiles, in the same way they did with the Challenger 2 main battle tanks,” said Sack