President Donald Trump has ruled out sending Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine for now despite repeated requests from Kyiv for the long-range cruise missiles to strike Russian targets far across the border.
The Context
Tomahawks are land-attack cruise missiles made by U.S. defense giant Raytheon, designed to strike high-value targets. Raytheon touts the Tomahawk as able to get past an enemy's layered air defenses.
Russia's rough equivalent is its Kalibr missile, which it has frequently fired at Ukraine. Moscow has said it would damage relations with the U.S. if Trump greenlit the transfer of Tomahawks, and that it would be an "escalation" of the conflict because Kyiv would need U.S. assistance to use the missiles.
The Tomahawk has an approximate range of 1,550 miles, and while it wouldn't be a gamechanger in itself—especially in small numbers—any fresh stocks of long-range weapons would significantly boost how many Russian targets Ukraine can strike.
What To Know
Trump said on Sunday he was "not really" considering a deal to sell Tomahawks to Ukraine, but added he was open to changing his mind.
While noncommittal, the president had previously suggested he may be willing to send Tomahawks to Kyiv as his administration has made little visible progress on bridging the gap between Russian and Ukrainian demands for a peace deal. Senior Ukrainian officials visiting the U.S. last month met with major defense companies, including Raytheon, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he and Trump had discussed Kyiv's long-range capabilities.
Trump may very well flip his opinion again in the future, said Oleksandr Merezhko, the chair of Ukraine's parliamentary foreign affairs committee.
"He's done it before, many times," Merezhko told Newsweek.
Ukraine has cultivated stockpiles of home-grown long-range missiles, like its Neptune anti-ship missile and the Flamingo ground-launched cruise missile, in the face of diminishing Western supplies and restrictive conditions on how donated weapons are utilized. Trump has said the U.S. needs to maintain its own stockpile of Tomahawks.
But the Pentagon assessed the U.S. could hand over some Tomahawks without negatively hitting America's own stockpile, CNN reported on Friday, citing three U.S. and European officials.
Separately, the U.K. has recently handed over more of its air-launched Storm Shadow cruise missiles to Ukraine for strikes over the border into Russia, Bloomberg reported on Monday. It's not clear how many Storm Shadows, with a range of about 155 miles, the U.K. has now provided.
Kyiv's backers feel the best way to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate on a deal to end the war is via furnishing Ukraine with long-range capabilities, said Merezhko.
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump told reporters of Tomahawk missiles at the White House in October: "They're very vital, they're very powerful, they're very accurate, they're very good."
Oleksandr Merezhko, the chair of Ukraine's parliamentary foreign affairs committee, told Newsweek on Monday of Trump: "He can change his opinion."
