US President Donald Trump warned that he may approve the transfer of long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine if Russian President Vladimir Putin does not move to end the war, signalling a potential escalation in Western support for Kyiv.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Israel, Trump said he had discussed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s request for Tomahawks during back-to-back phone calls over the weekend.
“I might say, ‘Look: if this war is not going to get settled, I’m going to send them Tomahawks’,” Trump told reporters. “The Tomahawk is an incredible weapon, very offensive weapon. And honestly, Russia does not need that.”
Tomahawk cruise missiles have a range of around 2,500 kilometres (1,550 miles), capable of striking deep inside Russian territory, including Moscow.
Trump said the US would not sell the missiles directly to Ukraine but could provide them through NATO.
“Yeah, I might tell him (Putin), if the war is not settled, we may very well do it,” he said. “We may not, but we may do it. … Do they want to have Tomahawks going in their direction? I don’t think so.”
The US president described the weapon as “a new step of aggression” but added that such pressure could help push Moscow toward peace. “I really think Putin would look great if he got this settled,” Trump said. “It’s not going to be good for him if not.”
Trump’s comments came as Russia continued its overnight attacks on Ukraine’s power grid, part of an intensified campaign to cripple the country’s energy infrastructure before winter.
Zelenskyy, speaking earlier on Fox News’ Sunday Briefing, said Ukraine would use Tomahawks strictly for military purposes if they were supplied.
“We never attacked their civilians. This is the big difference between Ukraine and Russia,” Zelenskyy said. “That’s why, if we speak about long-range missiles, we speak only about military goals.”
In a separate address, the Ukrainian leader said Moscow’s anxiety over the potential delivery of Tomahawks only reinforced the need for more such pressure.
“We see and hear that Russia is afraid that the Americans may give us Tomahawks — that this kind of pressure may work for peace,” Zelenskyy said.
Earlier on Sunday, the Kremlin voiced deep concern over the possibility of the United States supplying Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, warning that the conflict had entered a highly dramatic phase marked by escalating tensions on all sides.
“The topic of Tomahawks is of extreme concern,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian state television. “Now is really a very dramatic moment in terms of the fact that tensions are escalating from all sides.”
He said Moscow would have to assume that any incoming Tomahawk could carry a nuclear warhead.
“Just imagine: a long-range missile is launched and is flying and we know that it could be nuclear. What should the Russian Federation think? Just how should Russia react? Military experts overseas should understand this,” Peskov said.
Putin has previously argued that it would be “impossible” to use Tomahawks in Ukraine without the direct involvement of U.S. military personnel, and warned that such supplies would push the war into “a qualitatively new stage of escalation.”
The conflict, now in its third year, remains Europe’s deadliest since World War II. Russian officials say they are engaged in a “hot conflict” with the West, while Ukraine and its allies view Moscow’s invasion as an imperial-style land grab that must be repelled.