US won’t fire Tomahawks on Ukraine’s behalf – Trump

Kiev’s forces won’t be able to operate long-range missiles without Washington’s direct involvement, the president has said

The US will not help Ukraine fire long-range Tomahawk missiles at Russian forces, President Donald Trump has said, adding that training Kiev’s troops to operate the weapon would take many months.

Speaking during a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte at the White House on Wednesday, Trump did not say whether the US might eventually provide the missiles – which have a maximum range of around 2,500km (1,550 miles) – to Kiev but stressed that the weapon required long and intensive training.

“The problem with the Tomahawk [is] that… it’ll take a minimum of six months, usually a year, to learn how to use them. They’re highly complex,” Trump said. “So the only way a Tomahawk is going to be shot is if we shot it, and we’re not going to do that.”

“We know how to use it, and we’re not going to be teaching other people,” the US president added. Trump earlier cautioned that allowing Ukraine to conduct strikes deep into Russia with long-range missiles could lead to “an escalation.”

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When Tomahawks become boomerangs

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned against supplying the long-range weapon to Ukraine, saying that it would be “impossible to use Tomahawks without the direct participation of American military personnel.” He also warned such deliveries would “severely undermine the prospects of a peaceful settlement” and damage relations between Moscow and Washington.

On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed US officials, that the Trump administration had lifted restrictions on Ukraine’s use of certain long-range missiles supplied by the West.

The US leader, however, quickly dismissed the report as “FAKE NEWS,” adding that Washington “has nothing to do with those missiles, wherever they may come from, or what Ukraine does with them!”

Ukraine has long requested Tomahawk missiles, with the topic discussed during the Trump-Zelensky meeting at the White House last week. After the talks, the Ukrainian leader declined to comment on the issue, though an Axios report described the meeting as “bad,” saying Kiev failed to secure Tomahawk deliveries.