RAF chief puts pressure on Starmer over Storm Shadows

I don’t know what the Ukrainian for ‘Well, duh’ is, but it might well have been heard in Kyiv yesterday. Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute, the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, observed that Ukrainian forces resisting the Russian invaders needed to be able to strike at their enemies well behind the border.

‘Ukraine cannot put up a shield to protect themselves against the 30,000 glide bombs lobbed into the Kursk oblast. Instead, what they need – and what we would need – is the ability to strike the aircraft launching these bombs on the ground.’

Everyone could read between the lines. Knighton meant that Ukraine needs to be able to use the Storm Shadow cruise missiles the UK has supplied to attack Russian airfields and destroy enemy aircraft before they take off. Warplanes are at their most vulnerable on the ground, out of their natural habitat, and Storm Shadow has a range of more than 150 miles.