Deliveries of US Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine could take months and they might never leave their launchers, but that doesn’t mean they won’t have an impact on Moscow.

That is the conclusion of one of the country’s top national security figures, whose analysis sets out just what the arrangement with Washington might look like and how the deadly weapons could be used. Or not used.

A day earlier, Donald Trump gave his clearest hint yet that he was preparing to supply Kyiv with the weapons.

He has “sort of made a decision,” he said in his uniquely opaque manner. He then added that he would want to know what Ukraine planned to do with them first, for fear that the long-range missiles would represent an escalation.

The missiles cannot come fast enough for embattled Ukrainian forces.