No war is won by a single weapon, Downing Street has insisted as it defended continuing to refuse Ukraine permission for Storm Shadow missiles to be fired on targets in Russia.

Volodymyr Zelensky, who visited Sir Keir Starmer at No 10 on Thursday, has long been calling for the UK to allow the long-range missiles to be used inside Russian territory.

The comments came despite Mark Rutte, the new Nato secretary general, saying that there was no legal reason why Kyiv could not use the weapons on military targets inside Russia.

The Ukraine president also presented the Prime Minister with his “victory plan” and his strategy for defending his country in the coming months.