Citing senior anonymous officials, Bloomberg reported in early November that the UK had recently delivered a new batch of Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine - British-French cruise missiles with a high accuracy of hitting targets more than 250 kilometres away.

The number of missiles delivered is unknown, but their target is - the interior of the Russian Federation. The missiles were delivered before the onset of winter, which London believes will bring a renewed intensification of Kremlin attacks on Ukraine's civilian infrastructure.

As with previous missile deliveries, the UK has not issued an official statement on the new batch of Storm Shadow missiles to Kiev.

Pressure on Moscow

According to Bloomberg, the delivery of the missiles is also a response to US President Donald Trump' s refusal to supply Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles, which are several times the range of the British-French model. By all accounts, Trump is not going to change his position any time soon.

Back in July, Berlin made a similar statement, refusing to supply its Taurus missiles with a range of 500 to 600 kilometres, despite requests from Kiev, because it has a shortage of them.

Germany refused to supply Ukraine with Patriot air defence systems on the same grounds, but after the US promised to immediately sell newer models to Germany, Berlin agreed to supply two of its Patriot systems - it had already handed over three to Kiev.

In addition to a direct strike on Russian infrastructure, the delivery of the missiles, according to Bloomberg's sources, is also intended to send a signal to Russian President Vladimir Putin that aid to Ukraine will be more effective than putting the Russian economy into the war machine under the conditions of imposed sanctions.

It will be recalled that Ukraine also used British-French missiles during the recent combined attack in Russia's Bryansk region, where it struck an important chemical factory on 21 October.

The latter, according to the Ukrainian General Staff, "produces gunpowder, explosives and components of rocket fuel, in particular for ammunition and missiles". It was the first use of Storm Shadow missiles since the beginning of Trump's second presidency.

A key weapon

According to Putin, even the most sophisticated weapons cannot turn the situation on the battlefield in Kiev's favor. As the Kyiv Post reminds us, Storm Shadow missiles have been a "key weapon" in deep-range strikes by the Russian military since 2023, when they were deployed for the first time ever - but then only as part of a strike on occupied Ukrainian territory.

The first time Kiev struck the aggressor's territory with Storm Shadow missiles was in November 2024 - the day after it first used US ATACMS missiles in an attack on Russian territory. Washington has delivered fewer than 40 of these to Ukraine since the invasion began, and the last were fired by Kiev in January of this year. A new batch of missiles has not yet been delivered by the US.