On Monday, The New York Times released the news that US President Joe Biden had authorized Ukraine to fire US-made long-range missiles at targets in Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky promptly promised that the missiles would “speak for themselves.”

Hours later, a Ukrainian army battery launched eight 3,700-pound Army Tactical Missile System missiles – each carrying up to a thousand grenade-propelled submunitions – at a sprawling Russian ammunition arsenal in Karachev, a city in Bryansk Oblast, 90 kilometers north of Russia. border with Ukraine.

The early morning attack, which left the arsenal in flames, was just the start of what could be a powerful campaign of deep strikes targeting Russian forces and their command and supply infrastructure in and around the Kursk Oblast in western Russia.

Following Biden’s lead, the governments of the United Kingdom and France also authorized Ukraine to fire British and French munitions at Russia. On Wednesday morning, Ukrainian Air Force bombers reportedly dropped ten Storm Shadow cruise missiles at a target in Maryino, a town in Kursk, 40 kilometers from the border.

It is unclear exactly where the Ukrainians were aiming with the 2,900-pound cruise missiles. But 10 Storm Shadows is one lot of Storm Shadows. The Ukrainian Air Force usually fires the missiles from low-flying Sukhoi Su-24 supersonic bombers in pairs.

The scale of the attack indicates an extremely valuable – likely fortified – target. British company BAE Systems specifically developed the Storm Shadow’s 880-pound Bomb Royal Ordnance Augmented Charge warhead for destroying hardened structures such as underground bunkers.

It is not without reason that, when the Ukrainians attacked a Russian Navy submarine in a dry dock in occupied Crimea in September 2023, they chose to fire at least one Storm Shadow.

According to a Russian blogger, Wednesday’s target was a command post where Russian – and possibly North Korean – officers led the 50,000 Russian and North Korean troops attacking the 400-square-kilometer salient that holds 20,000 or more Ukrainian troops in Kursk. The devastating attack on officers and their staff “looks like an execution of the defenseless,” the blogger moaned.

The attack may have involved a record five Ukrainian Su-24 bombers, each carrying a pair of precision-guided missiles. Aided by foreign experts, the Ukrainian Air Force has adapted many of its ex-Soviet Su-24s – dozens of which could still be in service despite heavy losses – to launch Storm Shadows and similar French-made SCALP-EGs.

Launching Storm Shadows, SCALP-EGs and (soon) Ukrainian-made rocket bombs has become the main mission of the Ukrainian Air Force’s only Su-24 unit, the 7th Tactical Aviation Brigade, based in Western Ukraine.

As Russia expanded its war against Ukraine in February 2022, the brigade crews were still dropping unguided “dumb” bombs. “Now pilots are turning to the use of Western precision weapons,” reported Ukrainian correspondent Yuri Ignat. “Serious strategic tasks.”

Firing a cruise missile at an enemy from 200 miles away is safer than dropping a stupid bomb right over your head. But that does not mean that the missile attack is actually safe. “Often a Ukrainian pilot works on targets while several enemy missiles are already flying towards him,” Ignat wrote.

The risky strikes are worth it. Ukraine is building large numbers of locally developed deep strike weapons, including missiles, drones and glide bombs, but few of them possess the penetrating power of a Storm Shadow. The British missile is just what you need to burst an underground command bunker.