U.S. President Donald Trump said on Nov. 2 that as of now, he is not planning to provide Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles.
When asked by reporters if his administration is considering sending Kyiv Tomahawks, Trump responded: “No, not really… things can change but at this moment I’m not.”
His remarks come after recent reports that the Pentagon has signaled it has sufficient Tomahawk inventory if the White House were to greenlight a transfer to Ukraine.
The Tomahawk is a subsonic long-range missile capable of striking targets at a range of 1,600 to 2,500 kilometers (1,000-1600 miles). Providing the weapons would constitute a "qualitatively new stage of escalation," Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned.
Experts say these long-range weapons, if approved, would allow Ukraine to strike military targets deep inside Russia and increase pressure on Putin, giving Kyiv stronger leverage in future peace negotiations.
Later, reporters questioned what would be the “final straw” proving to Trump that Putin is not ready to end the war in Ukraine.
“There’s no final straw. Sometimes you gotta let it fight out, it’s been a tough war for Putin, he’s lost a lot of soldiers maybe a lot of million. It’s been tough on Ukraine, tough on both. Sometimes you have to let it get fought out,” he said.
Trump was also asked about frozen Russian assets and whether he would use them as leverage.
“Europe and Russia are having discussions, I’m not involved in those discussions,” he responded.
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