Some in the UK are worried, others think it should have been done long ago.posted at 9:08 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time on November 20

9:08 p.m. GMT November 20

Chris Mason
Political editor

This is undoubtedly a moment, after months of very prolonged and public discussions on this subject.

This very public debate irritated senior Western officials, who privately felt that it made their decision-making more difficult, risked provoking Russia and gave Moscow time to prepare.

But this is the nature of free Western democracies: a vigorous press, a vigorous public debate.

And, in this case, a wartime leader, President Zelensky of Ukraine, is very publicly advocating for the help he needs.

When I interviewed him four months ago, in July, he was calling for exactly what we are now seeing happening.

It was then a topic of discussion at the White House in September when the prime minister was there to meet with President Biden.

The United Kingdom has long considered itself “forward-looking,” as a senior official explained to me when making the case to its allies, some of whom feared an escalation of the conflict.

Although the government in London has not confirmed that Storm Shadow missiles were used, many MPs interpreted the defense secretary’s response to a question on the matter as a tacit “yes”, even if that n-word never left his lips.

Some here worry about the implications of this: Could Russia respond with a cyberattack or by attacking underwater communications cables, for example?

But many believe it is a necessary, even expected, strengthening of support for a democratic ally that continues to face attacks from Russia.

We are now ending our live coverage, but our main news we’ll update you on any further developments throughout the night or you can return to our article below to catch up on anything you missed today.