The US Department of Defense approved the delivery of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine after conducting an assessment, according to which it will not negatively affect the stockpiles of the United States. The final political decision on providing these missiles to the country attacked by Russia is thus in the hands of President Donald Trump. This was stated by three unnamed American and European officials for the CNN station, reports TASR.
The Pentagon informed the White House of its assessment shortly before Trump’s October meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House. Zelenskyy claims that Ukraine needs tomahawks to continue military operations against Russia – including those deep in its territory.
Just a few days before this meeting, Trump said that the US has “a lot” of Tomahawk missiles that it could potentially provide to Ukraine. He softened his statement after a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, when he declared that he would rather not supply Ukraine with tomahawks, because, according to him, the US does not want to “give away” the weapons it needs for its own protection. He then told Zelensky behind closed doors that he would not give missiles to Ukraine – at least not yet.
The Defense Department’s assessment has encouraged U.S. European allies, who say the U.S. now has less reason not to supply Ukraine with the long-range missiles it is interested in, two unnamed European sources said. Tomahawks can hit targets deep in Russia, including Moscow.
However, after Trump dramatically changed his stance, he surprised American and European officials. Putin warned Trump that although the Tomahawk missiles would not change the situation on the battlefield significantly will damage relations between the US and Russia. Since then, however, the US has imposed sanctions on the two largest Russian oil companies, and Trump has canceled the planned summit with Putin in Budapest, at least for the time being.
The US president has not completely canceled the delivery of tomahawks to Ukraine, sources cited by CNN said. The US administration has drawn up plans for their rapid delivery if Trump issues the relevant order. Although the Pentagon is not concerned about American stockpiles, department officials are still dealing with the question of how Ukraine would train and deploy missiles. One of the main operational questions remains how it would fire missiles if the US provided them.
Tomahawks are most often launched from ships or submarines, but the Ukrainian navy is greatly weakened. Therefore, they would probably have to be launched from land. The US has developed ground equipment for this purpose and could provide it to Ukraine, the CNN server said. European officials believe that even without these devices, Ukraine would be able to find a solution, as was the case with the use of British Storm Shadow missiles.
