At an air base on the outskirts of Lipetsk in western Russia, Vladimir Putin’s elite fighter jocks prove their aerobatic worth at Moscow’s ‘Top Gun’ aviator school.
Located within range of Ukraine’s British and American-supplied long-range missiles, the cream of the Russian air force could soon find themselves under a cross-border missile barrage if Sir Keir Starmer and Joe Biden agree to unlock restrictions on Kyiv for strikes deep into Russia.
Russia may well have already begun evacuating the fighter school, especially after storage facilities at the air base were hit by drones in August.
But giving Kyiv the green light for long-range missile strikes will no doubt affect the course of the war.
The Institute for the Study of War has identified at least 225 potential targets that Ukraine could hit immediately.
These include military airfields, training bases, logistics hubs and manufacturing sites that all play a role in supporting Russia’s war machine.
Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, has repeatedly pleaded for the removal of restrictions on the weapons.
David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, and Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, were in Kyiv on Wednesday to discuss the issue with the country’s leader.
However, experts have warned that granting Ukraine permission to use French and British Storm Shadow missiles and US ATACMS missiles would not be a silver bullet.
“We should not over-egg what this will do,” Matthew Savill, the military sciences director for the Royal United Services Institute, told The Telegraph. “I’m afraid some of this talk of turning the tide and those kinds of comments are just overblown on what Storm Shadow will achieve.”