Donald Trump’s remarks, made aboard Air Force One as he flew to Israel, sparked an immediate backlash from top Kremlin officials
Donald Trump has threatened to hand Ukraine long-range Tomahawk missiles to pile pressure on Vladimir Putin to end the bloodshed.
“I might say, ’Look: if this war is not going to get settled, I’m going to send them Tomahawks,” the US president told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Israel on Sunday. “The Tomahawk is an incredible weapon, very offensive weapon. And honestly, Russia does not need that.”
It comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pushed Trump for stronger military support during a phone call at the weekend. Russia, however, warned in September that if the US helped Ukraine launch Tomahawks, it could be seen as directly entering the war.
“Do they (Russia) want to have Tomahawks going in that direction? I don’t think so,” Trump added while on the plane. “I think I might speak to Russia about that.”
The US used the missiles, which have a maximum range of 1,550 miles and warheads weighing almost half a ton, in strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June. The Tomahawks, first used against Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War, would mark a massive step up in firepower compared with any weapons the West has yet provided to Kyiv.
Trump admitted such a move would be “a new step of aggression”. He said last week that he worried that supplying Ukraine such missiles could trigger an “escalation” in the war, but on Sunday, Zelensky insisted that Kyiv would only use the missiles on Russian military targets.
“We never attacked their civilians. This is the big difference between Ukraine and Russia,” Zelensky told Fox News. “That’s why, if we speak about long-range [missiles], we speak only about military goals.”
Moscow hit back fast after Trump’s comments. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: “Now is really a very dramatic moment in terms of the fact that tensions are escalating from all sides. 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.”
Former Russian president and top security official Dmitry Medvedev mocked Trump as a “star-spangled uncle”. “The delivery of these missiles could end badly for everyone, and most of all, for Trump himself,” he said.
It comes after remarks last week by primetime state TV host Vladimir Solovyov, who warned that sending long-range Tomahawk rockets to Ukraine could spark a new Cuban Missile Crisis, similar to that of 1962.
“(The West) just need to understand that the transfer of Tomahawk (missiles to Ukraine) is already a new Cuban Crisis,” he said.
“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. [But], by the way, if the United Kingdom is wiped out, I think the whole of humanity will applaud.”
US Vice President JD Vance first revealed late last month that America was considering sending the weapons to Ukraine.