The president of the United States, Donald Trump, expressed this morning his reluctance to “exhaust” them to sell them to Ukraine for use in the war against Russia, an idea that the head of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, “did not like” when the Republican magnate conveyed it to him, held a few hours earlier.
“We also need Tomahawks for the United States. Many (…). I mean, we cannot exhaust them for our country. So, you know, they are very important. They are very powerful, they are very precise, they are very good. But we also need them. So I don’t know what we can do about it,” he declared in a brief appearance at the White House.
Asked if Putin would sell these missiles to kyiv, Trump clarified that “he didn’t like the idea.” “I told him: Would you mind if I gave a couple of thousand Tomahawks to your opposition?” said the White House tenant, who lamented that, “sometimes, you have to take it with a little humor, but he (Putin) doesn’t want to.”
The American president has also addressed the possibility of imposing sanctions on Moscow, a measure stipulated in a bill of which the leader of the Republican majority in the Senate, John Thune, has been in favor in media such as . “He still doesn’t know anything about the call. I’m going to talk to him later,” said Trump, who noted that the proposal depended on what he himself “wanted to do.” “I am not against anything,” he stressed, stating that he would also speak with the president of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson.
“We want peace. We want to stop the killing of 7,000 people a week,” the president declared. “I thought this would be quick (to end the war in Ukraine) because of my relationship with President Putin. I thought this would be very quick,” he reiterated about the war exacerbated by the invasion that began in February 2022. “Who would have thought that before this?” he asked himself before promising that he will make this conflict “the ninth” he has resolved.
On the other hand, Trump has indicated that his, previously agreed upon in their call, will take place “within two weeks, more or less.” On the other hand, the meeting of the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, will take place “very soon”, although so far there has been confirmation from Moscow.
The US president’s statements came a few hours after announcing the bilateral meeting in Budapest to “put an end” to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a dialogue agreed upon through the call with Putin, whose foreign policy advisor, Yuri Ushakov, has described as “very informative and, at the same time, extremely frank and confidential”, as well as “very extensive, lasting almost two hours and average duration”.
During their conversation, the Russian president stated about the possible supply of long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, which “would not change the situation on the battlefield, but would cause significant damage to the relations” of his “countries, not to mention the prospects for a peaceful solution.”
