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The US may send long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine if Russia won’t end the war in Ukraine, President Trump said on Sunday.
Speaking aboard Air Force One on his way to Israel, President Trump told reporters he had spoken about the missiles with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He said Tomahawk missiles could be sold to NATO countries, who would then provide them to Ukraine.
“They’d like to have Tomahawks. We talked about that. And so we’ll see,” Trump said.
When pressed by reporters on whether he would supply the missiles to Ukraine, Trump said he would probably speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin first and issue him an ultimatum about bringing the war in Ukraine to an end.
“I might talk to [Putin]. I might say, ‘Look, if this war is not going to get settled, I’m going to send them Tomahawks,’” he said. “The Tomahawk is an incredible weapon, very offensive weapon. And honestly, Russia does not need that.”
Trump said providing the missiles, with a range of over 1,000 miles, would be “a new step of aggression” in the conflict.
“I might tell [Russia] that if the war is not settled that we may very well do it. We may not, but we may do it,” Trump said.
President Zelensky said on Sunday that he had spoken to Trump for the second time in two days to discuss strengthening his country’s defensive and offensive capabilities.
“President Trump is well informed about everything that is happening. We agreed to continue our dialogue, and our teams are doing their preparations,” Zelensky said on X.
Putin has warned that supplying Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine would lead to “a completely new, qualitatively new stage of escalation” in the war and harm Moscow’s relations with Washington.
However, he added that the missiles “won’t change the balance of power on the battlefield at all.”
Previous requests for Tomahawk missiles by Ukraine were brushed aside by Trump, who has said he wants the war to come to an end, rather than escalating further.
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