US president has repeatedly hinted at supplying Kyiv with Tomahawks, but some in Moscow say Kremlin sees it as negotiating gambit
US president has repeatedly hinted at supplying Kyiv with Tomahawks, but some in Moscow say Kremlin sees it as negotiating gambit
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is to head to the White House for a crucial meeting with Donald Trump, with the possible supply of US Tomahawk cruise missiles expected to top the agenda.
The US president has repeatedly hinted in recent weeks that he may deliver Tomahawks, which would give Kyiv its longest-range weapon yet that would be capable of striking Moscow with accurate, destructive munitions.
“If this war doesn’t get settled, I may send Tomahawks,” Trump told reporters on Sunday. “A Tomahawk is an incredible weapon. And Russia does not need that. If the war is not settled, we may do it. We may not. But we may do it.”
The missile has a range of up to 1,500 miles.
Trump, fresh from brokering a peace deal in Gaza, has signalled he is eager to build on the momentum of that diplomatic victory by increasing pressure on Moscow to end Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now in its fourth year.
On the eve of Zelenskyy’s visit, Trump said he was planning to meet Putin in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, on a date still to be determined in an effort to end the war. They previously met in Alaska in August, which did not produce a diplomatic breakthrough.
The announcement of another Trump-Putin summit followed a phone call with the Russian president. “I believe great progress was made,” Trump said on social media of the call.
In the past, Trump has set deadlines for Moscow and vowed to impose crippling sanctions on Russia’s economy, only to back down. He has frequently softened his stance after speaking to or meeting Putin.
While supplying Tomahawks, the idea of which has already annoyed the Kremlin, would be symbolically significant, they are only available in relatively small numbers, estimated by some experts at 20 to 50 missiles.
Twice over the weekend, Trump and Zelenskyy spoke by phone in what the Ukrainian president described as “productive” talks – a stunning reversal from February’s White House dressing-down that had laid bare the rift between the two leaders.
