A Storm Shadow missile, which has a range of 190 miles, on display at an international trade air show.

Ukraine has made an impassioned plea to Sir Keir Starmer to allow it to use British-donated Storm Shadow missiles to strike Russian territory, insisting the weapons will “turn the tide of war”.

Kyiv’s force would use the long-range missiles against Russian airfields, command posts and supply lines, an advisor to Volodymyr Zelensky has told TheTelegraph.

Mykhailo Podolyak said if Britain loosened restrictions on the use of the weapons, it would allow Ukraine to increase the intensity of strikes against key targets deep inside Russia that could speed up the end of the war.

It is the most forthright appeal for the British to grant permission for strikes on Russian soil since the British prime minister spurned Mr Zelensky’s request last month during meetings in London.

Kyiv has drawn up a list of potential targets, including an airfield its forces recently struck in a drone attack, that would complicate Russian efforts to resupply its defences in Kursk and drop deadly glide bombs along the front lines.

Mr Zelensky last week instructed Ukrainian officials and diplomats to draw up plans to convince his Western allies to end their opposition to their missiles being used on targets inside Russia.

Kyiv has already been given permission to use some of its advanced Western weapons inside Russia.

Ukrainian forces have been spotted using British Challenger 2 tanks as part of the invasion of Kursk, as well as American Himars rocket launchers.

But Western governments have so far rebuffed Ukrainian requests for permission to carry out long-range missile strikes across the border, amid fears of escalation.

“Undoubtedly, Ukraine urgently needs our British partners to authorise the use of Storm Shadow cruise missiles to strike Russian territory,” Mr Podolyak told The Telegraph, revealing part of Kyiv’s diplomatic strategy for the first time.

He detailed how command posts, cruise missile storage depots and military airfields located near the Ukrainian border would be targeted in “systematic and large-scale strikes”.

One of those airbases is Lipetsk, which Kyiv has targeted with multiple waves of strikes using domestically made drones. Officials last week claimed to have destroyed 700 Russian glide bombs in one assault.

The airfield is about 200 miles from the Ukrainian border with Russia’s Kursk region, the staging post for Kyiv’s audacious offensive on Russian territory.

“Ukraine has already demonstrated its ability to effectively destroy such targets. Such strikes have been carried out using Ukraine’s existing capabilities, and they are very complex and time-consuming operations,” Mr Podolyak said.

“If Ukraine is able to use Storm Shadow missiles in such operations, the quality and number of such strikes could increase significantly.

“And the systematic and large-scale strikes are one of the keys to finally turning the tide of the war in favour of the democratic pro-Ukrainian coalition.”

Warheads can penetrate reinforced shelters

Storm Shadows can hit targets as far as 190 miles away and come with modern technologies that could become crucial in disrupting the Kremlin’s war machine inside Ukraine.

The Franco-British missile’s bunker-buster warhead is capable of penetrating strongly protected targets, such as specially reinforced shelters housing Russian aircraft and munitions.

It also flies low to the ground, skirting terrain, and concealing itself from enemy radar coverage, making it harder for air-defence systems to target it.

“Allowing the use of Storm Shadow missiles on the territory of the Russian Federation will significantly slow down and complicate Russian logistics and force Russia to withdraw its aircraft to more remote airfields,” Mr Podolyak said.

Ukraine will outline plans to use Storm Shadow in tandem with “other means of destruction” in its renewed diplomatic push to obtain permission for strikes deep inside Russia from the UK and other Western allies.

“By the way, as is already clear from the course of the current war, Russia understands only significant force and losses,” the adviser added.

Kyiv sent requests to both Britain and France to drop restrictions on the Storm Shadow and its French sister Scalp-EG. Mr Zelensky has also repeatedly asked Washington for American-donated Atacms ballistic missiles to be used to strike targets deep within Russia.

It is understood that London, Paris and Rome, which have firms involved in the missile’s manufacturing, would have to sign off on any decision over Storm Shadow.

A British defence source said the US was the real stumbling block because it was blocking use of a “key enabling requirement” for launching Storm Shadow into Russia.

Germany refused to hand over Taurus missile

Germany has refused to hand over its own Taurus cruise missile and on Saturday it emerged it was freezing all military aid to Ukraine.

Defence minister Boris Pistorius had written up a wish list for €4 billion in additional military supplies to Ukraine, but a letter sent to him by the finance ministry made clear that no extra money would be freed up because of the need to cut federal spending.

The European nations are also hesitant to move without an agreement with the US, providing them with diplomatic and military cover for any decision.

Sabrina Singh, a spokeswoman for the US department of defence, last week admitted that Washington was “worried about escalation” over Ukraine’s long-range strikes.

A UK Government spokeswoman said: “There has been no change in the UK’s position. We have been providing military aid to support Ukraine’s clear right of self-defence against Russia’s illegal attacks in accordance with international humanitarian law.

“We are clear that equipment provided by the UK is intended for the defence of Ukraine.”

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Starmer accused of weakening support for Ukraine

Volodymyr Zelensky with Sir Keir Starmer and John Healey in the UK last month. The Ukrainian president has said he needs more help fighting Russia -

Sir Keir Starmer is under fresh pressure to lift restrictions on Ukraine’s use of Storm Shadow missiles after Volodymyr Zelensky said British support was “slowing down”.

The Ukrainian president complained that British aid to Kyiv had begun to wane as his forces continued their unprecedented incursion into Russian territory in the Kursk region.

“Unfortunately, the situation has slowed down recently,” Mr Zelensky said, referring to UK military assistance.

Sir Keir has upheld a Conservative ban on using UK-made Storm Shadows to strike targets deep inside Russia, amid concerns it could lead to escalation with nuclear-armed Moscow.

“We will discuss how to fix this because long-range capabilities are vital for us. The whole world sees how effective Ukrainians are – how our entire nation defends its independence,” said Mr Zelensky.

It came as four former Conservative defence secretaries called on No 10 to do more to support Ukraine, with some demanding Kyiv be allowed to use Storm Shadows in the Russian offensive.

Mr Zelensky said that it was “crucial” for Britain, France and the US to “remove barriers that hinder us from weakening Russian positions”.

“Long-range capabilities are the answer to the most critical strategic questions of this war,” he added.

Any use of long-range Storm Shadow missiles inside Russia by Ukraine would require the consent of both Britain and France, which jointly developed them, as well as the United States.

The White House denied reports that the US was blocking a request by the UK for Ukraine to use the missiles.

A Biden administration official told The Telegraph that no formal request has been made for Ukraine to launch them over the Russian border, which would require the use of some US-made systems.

Ukrainian officials, including Mr Zelensky, have argued that the missiles would allow Ukraine to strike a number of key targets behind the front lines, including airfields, ammunition storage depots and Russian command posts.

Kyiv is particularly keen to prevent Russian jets firing glide-bombs at its troops as they seek to hold territory inside Kursk.

The Ukrainian incursion, which began on Aug 6, is the first foreign invasion of Russian soil since the Second World War.

Mykhailo Podolyak, one of Mr Zelensky’s advisers, told The Telegraph on Saturday that Storm Shadow missiles would also allow Ukraine to disrupt Russian supply chains because they can penetrate underground bunkers and evade radar detection.

However, a well-placed US official said 90 per cent of Russian fighter jets had been moved to airbases beyond the 155-mile range of Storm Shadows, and that long-range Ukrainian drones would be more effective against glide bombs.

“Russia assumed that the US or other Western countries may eventually grant them permission to use long-range missiles in Russia, and they just made the adjustments at that point,” they said.

“If this were to ever happen, it’s not going to have the military impact that Ukraine thinks it would, or that some voices out there think it would.”

On Sunday, Mr Zelensky said the purpose of the Kursk offensive was to create a “buffer zone” between Ukraine and Russia, in the first justification for the incursion he has publicly offered since it began.

“It is now our primary task in defensive operations overall to destroy as much Russian war potential as possible and conduct maximum counteroffensive actions,” he said in his nightly address. “This includes creating a buffer zone on the aggressor’s territory – our operation in the Kursk region.”

He repeated his call for the UK to increase its support for Ukraine, and named the US and France as other countries who could do more.

A Pentagon spokesman said on Thursday that the US believes the use of the missiles would be an “escalation”, and provoke a response by Russia against Ukraine’s Western allies.

Mr Zelensky’s criticism of the UK comes after Sir Keir suggested at last month’s Nato summit that Ukraine would be allowed to use the missiles.

A Downing Street spokesman later said the ban using Storm Shadows inside Russia, first imposed by the previous Conservative government, would remain.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said on Sunday that there had been “no change in the UK’s position”.

However, four former Tory defence secretaries told The Telegraph Sir Keir should do more to help Ukraine, after John Healey, his Defence Secretary, said Britain’s support would be “iron clad” under Labour.

Sir Michael Fallon, who served as defence secretary under Theresa May’s government, said: “It can’t be right to let Putin hit a children’s hospital with glide bombs from miles over the border, yet bar Ukraine from defending itself with long-range missiles like Storm Shadow.”

Sir Ben Wallace, who served under Boris Johnson, said: “Time and time again those that want to do nothing have used the ‘escalation’ excuse.

“They used it before the conflict, they used it when we supplied short-range anti-tank missiles, they used it when we supplied tanks.

“The reality is it is the appeasers that use this language and all the while Ukrainians suffer. Storm Shadows have been making a real difference in Crimea, which Russia already believes to be sovereign Russian territory, without escalation.”

Sir Gavin Williamson and Grant Shapps, two other former defence secretaries, respectively said the UK should do “more, not less” to help Ukraine and “redouble” support.

“Boris Johnson set the tone for Britain leading international support for Ukraine but as the conflict has dragged on our voice has to be louder,” Sir Gavin said. “We have to give Ukraine capabilities that they need to seize the strategic advantage on the battlefield. That means longer-range weapons.”

The calls came as Ukraine said it had struck a second bridge in the Kursk region in its attempt to disrupt Russian supply chains, having destroyed a bridge in the neighbouring town of Glushkovo on Friday.

The Russian defence ministry said it was pushing back against Ukraine’s forces near several villages.

More than 120,000 people have fled the region since fighting began, according to Russian authorities.

In response to the incursion, Russia has ramped up pressure on Kyiv’s forces in eastern Ukraine, claiming to have captured another village near the Ukrainian-held logistics hub of Pokrovsk.

A government spokesman said: “The Prime Minister has been clear that UK’s support for Ukraine is unwavering. That is why he committed to £3 billion a year of support to Ukraine, for as long as it takes, within his first week in office.

“Further lethal aid was also accelerated to Kyiv within hours of this Government being elected, bolstering the £12 billion of UK support already pledged, and ensuring the vital military equipment reaches Ukrainian soldiers on the front line.”

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