US President Donald Trump suggested on Sunday that he might allow Kiev to receive long-range Tomahawk missiles if Russia does not end its war against Ukraine, which Russian President Vladimir Putin warned would constitute a major escalation.
"(Ukraine) would like to have Tomahawks. That's a step forward," Trump told reporters on Air Force One en route to the Middle East for a peace conference on the Gaza Strip.
"Yes, I could tell him (Putin) that if the war doesn't get resolved, we could very easily do that," Trump said.
"We might not, but we could do it... Do they want to have Tomahawks going their way? I don't think so," Trump added.
Washington would not sell the missiles directly to Kiev, but would instead offer them to NATO, which could pay for them and send them to Ukraine under a previously announced program.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment further today after Trump said he might agree to deliver Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, Reuters reported.
Peskov reiterated Moscow's earlier position that the use of such weapons would require direct US involvement.
Previously, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that the delivery of these missiles could end badly for everyone — especially Trump.
Tomahawk missiles have a range of 2.500 kilometers and can hit deep into Russia, including the capital Moscow.
Putin warned on October 2 that the delivery of the Tomahawks would represent a "completely new phase of escalation" between Washington and Moscow.
However, he said that these missiles would not pose a major threat to his country.
"Can Tomahawks harm us? They can. But we will shoot them down and improve our air defense system," Putin said.
Trump confirmed that he discussed the missiles with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday in their second conversation in two days.
Zelensky said "signals" indicate fear among the Russian leadership and that the Tomahawks could strengthen Kiev's position as Trump tries to broker a peace deal between the two sides.
Trump said last week that he was waiting to hear what Ukraine would do with such long-range missiles before making a decision.
The Ukrainian leader said on Sunday that his forces would only target military facilities if they were delivered Tomahawks, not civilian targets in Russia.
"We never attacked their civilians. That's a big difference between Ukraine and Russia," Zelensky said in an interview broadcast on Fox News.
"Therefore, if we talk about long-range missiles, we are talking only about military targets," he added.
Zelenskyy again called on the international community to put more pressure on Moscow, after Russia launched a new wave of attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure, cutting off electricity supplies to hundreds of thousands of households.
Zelensky said Russia had intensified its "air terror against our cities and communities, intensifying attacks on our energy infrastructure."
In the past week alone, Moscow has used more than 3.100 drones, 92 missiles and around 1.360 glide bombs to attack Ukraine, Zelensky wrote on Iks.
Moscow denies targeting civilians and says Ukraine is using power plants to supply electricity to its military sector. The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that its forces had carried out attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure facilities that it said were part of the military-industrial complex.
In his nightly video address, Zelensky said on Sunday that Ukrainian forces had made progress in the Zaporizhia and Donetsk regions, the scene of recent heavy fighting.
"Ukrainian units are continuing our counter-offensive operations in the Dobropolje area and elsewhere – especially in the Zaporizhia sector, near Orikhiv, where our troops have advanced more than three kilometers so far," he said.
These allegations could not be immediately confirmed.
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