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US President Donald Trump is considering sending long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Asked by reporters on Air Force One on Sunday whether he would provide Kyiv with Tomahawks, Trump replied: “We’ll see… I may”. The missiles would be “a new step of aggression” in Ukraine’s war with Russia, he said.<\/p>\n
The comments follow a phone call at the weekend between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who pushed for stronger military capabilities to launch counter-attacks against Russia.<\/p>\n
Moscow has previously warned Washington against providing long-range missiles to Kyiv, saying it would cause a major escalation in the conflict and strain US-Russian relations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Tomahawk missiles have a range of 2,500 km (1,500 miles), which would put Moscow within reach for Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Trump said he would possibly speak to Russia about the Tomahawks requested by Ukraine. <\/p>\n
“I might tell them [Russia] that if the war is not settled, that we may very well, we may not, but we may do it.”<\/p>\n
“Do they [Russia] want Tomahawks going in their direction? I don’t think so,” the US president added.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the topic of Tomahawks was of “extreme concern” to Russia. “Now is really a very dramatic moment in terms of the fact that tensions are escalating from all sides,” he said.<\/p>\n
In September Peskov dismissed the threat of Tomahawks, saying they would not be able to “change the dynamic” of the war.<\/p>\n
But in his comments on Sunday he noted that if Tomahawks were launched at Russia Moscow would not be able to tell whether they were carrying nuclear warheads. <\/p>\n
“What should the Russian Federation think? Just how should Russia react?”, he said.<\/p>\n
On Monday morning former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev doubled down on Peskov’s comments. <\/p>\n
“How should Russia respond? Exactly!” Medvedev said on social media.<\/p>\n
“The delivery of these missiles could end badly for everyone. And first of all \u2013 for Trump himself,” he wrote.<\/p>\n
Medvedev, who over the last few years has grown into an increasingly hawkish figure, frequently posts on social media espousing more extreme positions than the Kremlin’s. <\/p>\n
He and Trump have sparred online before. Comments by Medvedev in August led Trump to say he had ordered two nuclear submarines to move closer to Russia<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Kyiv has made multiple requests for long-range missiles, as it weighs up striking Russian cities far from the front lines of the grinding conflict.<\/p>\n In their recent phone calls, Zelensky and Trump discussed Ukraine’s bid to strengthen its military capabilities, including boosting its air defences and long-range arms. <\/p>\n Ukrainian cities including Kyiv have repeatedly come under heavy Russian bombardment with drones and missiles. Russia has particularly targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as winter approaches, causing widespread power cuts. <\/p>\n Last month, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg suggested the US president had authorised strikes<\/a> deep into Russian territory, telling Fox News “there are no such things as sanctuaries” from attacks in the Russia-Ukraine war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n