US President Donald Trump suggested he could allow Kyiv to receive long-range Tomahawk missiles if Russia doesn’t end its war on Ukraine — a move Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin has warned would represent a major escalation.
“[Ukraine] would like to have Tomahawks. That’s a step up,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on October 12 en route to the Middle East for a Gaza peace conference.
“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,” Trump added.
Washington would not sell the missiles directly to Kyiv, but instead would offer them to NATO, which could pay for and send them on to Ukraine, as part of an earlier announced program.
Tomahawk missiles have a range of 2,500 km, capable of hitting deep inside Russia, including the capital, Moscow.
Putin on October 2 warned that delivery of Tomahawks would represent a “completely new stage of escalation” between Washington and Moscow.
Still, he claimed they would not pose a major threat to the country.
“Can Tomahawks harm us? They can. But we will shoot them down and improve our air defense system,” Putin said.
Trump confirmed that he discussed the missiles in a second call in two days with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on October 12.
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Here Is What Tomahawk Missiles Could Do For Ukraine
US President Donald Trump told reporters on October 6 that he had “sort of made a decision” about allowing Ukraine access to Tomahawk cruise missiles. If Washington does supply the advanced weapon, here is how it could change the battlefield dynamic between Moscow and Kyiv.
Zelenskyy said “signals” from indicated fear among the Russian leadership and that Tomahawks could strengthen Kyiv’s position as Trump attempts to broker a peace deal between the parties.
Trump last week said he was waiting to hear what Ukraine would do with such long-range missiles before making a decision.
The Ukrainian leader on October 12 said his forces would only target military assets should it be supplied with Tomahawks and not strike civilian sites inside Russia.
“We’ve never attacked their civilians. This is the big difference between Ukraine and Russia,” Zelenskyy said in an interview broadcast on Fox News.
“That’s why, if we speak about long-range [missiles], we speak only about military goals.”
Zelenskyy renewed calls on the international community to put more pressure on Moscow, as Russia carried out a new wave of attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, cutting power to hundreds of thousands of households.
Zelenskyy on October 12 said Russia had intensified its “aerial terror against our cities and communities, intensifying strikes on our energy infrastructure.”
In the past week alone, Moscow had used more than 3,100 drones, 92 missiles, and about 1,360 glide bombs to attack Ukraine, Zelenskyy wrote on the social media platform X.
Moscow denies targeting civilians and claims that Ukraine uses the energy sites to supply power to its military sector. Russia’s Defense Ministry on October 12 claimed its forces carried out strikes against Ukrainian energy infrastructure facilities that it said are part of Kyiv’s military-industrial complex.
In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy on October 12 said Ukrainian forces had made gains in the Zaporizhzhya and Donetsk regions, sites of recent heavy fighting.
“Ukrainian units are continuing our counteroffensive operations in the Dobropillya area and elsewhere — notably in the Zaporizhzhya sector, near Orikhiv, where our troops have advanced more than 3 kilometers to date,” he said.
The reports could not immediately be verified.
