Trump makes new statement on Tomahawk missiles, Ukraine probably won’t get them
Trump said the US has Tomahawk missiles, but they need them (Illustrative photo: Getty Images)
US President Donald Trump said that the US needs its Tomahawk missiles, according to his conversation with reporters at the White House.
“We need Tomahawks for the United States of America, too. We have uh a lot of them, but we need them. We can't deplete for our country. So, you know, they're very vital. They're very powerful. They're very accurate. They're very good, but we need them, too. So I don’t know what we can do about that,” he said.
The US president also said that during his phone conversation with Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader didn’t like the idea of the US transferring several thousand Tomahawk missiles to its partners.
“I did actually say, ‘Would you mind if I gave a couple of thousand tomahawks to your opposition?' I did say that to him. I said it just that way. He didn't like the idea,” Trump said.
As previously reported by RBC-Ukraine, citing Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov as quoted by Russian media, the Russian President said that such missiles won’t change the situation on the front line, but will damage relations between Russia and the US.
Tomahawks for Ukraine
Earlier, RBC-Ukraine reported that the US Department of Defense had developed a plan to sell or transfer long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine in case Donald Trump gives the green light.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy twice raised the issue of Tomahawks during phone calls with Trump. After the talks, Zelenskyy noted that the final decision on the transfer of missiles had not yet been made.
According to Stacie Pettyjohn, director of the defense program at the Center for a New American Security think tank, the US could transfer only 20 to 50 such missiles to Ukraine - and they are unlikely to change the dynamics of the war.
