Joe Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to fire US-supplied missiles at targets inside Russia could help Kyiv hold on to its bridgehead in Kursk Oblast, giving it a valuable card at anticipated peace talks.

But that good news is laced with a more depressing truth.

The decision has been so carefully calibrated to minimise the risk of escalation, and so laden with precautionary limitations, that it cannot dramatically change the course of the war.

“Yes, the Atacms will help in Kursk, and yes, it is absolutely too little and too late,” said Andrei Zagorodnyuk, a former Ukrainian defence minister.