The Kremlin have issued a chilling nuclear warning after Donald Trump confirmed that he is contemplating sending Ukraine new long-range missiles if Putin doesn’t stop his invasion
Vladimir Putin has warned that the West could expect an ‘extreme response’ if Donald Trump goes ahead with his latest threat.
The US president is contemplating giving long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine is Moscow doesn’t try harder to bring about peace. And now Kremlin cronies have claimed that this would be crossing a new line, as Ukraine will have the ability to strike deep into Russian territory.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Sunday on whether he would offer Kyiv the weapons, Trump said cryptically: “We’ll see… I may”.
“I might talk to him [Putin]. I might say, ‘look, if this war is not going to get settled, I’m going to send them Tomahawks,'” the US leader added. Trump warned that the missiles would be “a new step of aggression” in Ukraine’s war with Russia.
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The comments are of “extreme concern” to the Kremlin, prompting a chilling response from Putin’s pals. Propogandist Dmitry Peskov, whose TV addresses are scripted by the Kremlin, has said that the situation is “very dramatic” with tensions “escalating from all sides”.
Russia has previously warned the US against providing the long-range weapons to Kyiv, a move which they say would spark a major escalation in the Ukraine war and a break down in relations between Russia and the States.
Trump’s ultimatum comes after he spoke to Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelensky over the weekend. Zelensky is said to have asked Trump for the missiles during the call, as Ukraine push for stronger military weapons to launch counter-attacks against Russia.
Tomahawk missiles have a range of 2,500 km (1,500 miles) and cost up to £3m each, the BBC reports, which would put Moscow in the crosshairs as it would be well within reach for Ukraine.
The weapons could be a game-changer for Ukraine, who are working hard to claw back against Russian advances. They would allow Zelensky’s troops to make precision attacks at Russian military and energy assets far from the frontline.
Russia mouthpiece Peskov also made a veiled threat about how Moscow would respond with older versions of the Tomahawk capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
“Just imagine a long-range missile is launched and is flying and we know that it could be nuclear,” he told Russian state television. “What should the Russian Federation think? Just how should Russia react? Military experts overseas should understand this.”
“Now is really a very dramatic moment in terms of the fact that tensions are escalating from all sides,” he warned. It comes after Vladimir Solovyov, the primetime state television host who spout Kremlin narratives – claimed the transfer of Tomahawk long range rockets to Ukraine would plunge the world into a new Cuban Missile Crisis like in 1962.
“[The West] just needs to understand that the transfer of Tomahawk [missiles to Ukraine] is already a new Cuban Crisis,” he said, referring to a moment in the Cold War when the world was on the brink of a nuclear conflict. “And when they try to say: ‘What difference does it make…..?’ It makes no difference, we’ll just get hit and that will be the end of it.”
Putin has also said that a Tomahawk supply to Ukraine would destroy his relations with Trump. “This will lead to the destruction of our relations, at least the positive trends that had begun in these relations,” said Putin. “So I say what I think. And how things will turn out depends not only on us and not only on me.”