U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he is not currently considering a deal that would allow Ukraine to obtain long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles. Last week, media reports said that the Pentagon had approved a deal to transfer the missiles to Kyiv.
“It could happen. I could change my mind, but at this moment I'm not,” Trump told journalists on board Air Force One yesterday.
On Oct. 31, CNN reported that the Pentagon had authorized the White House to supply Tomahawk cruise missiles to Kyiv, concluding that doing so would not affect U.S. defense capabilities. However, the final decision on the matter remained up to Trump.
The Washington Post reported back in July that Trump was considering the transfer of Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv. Modern versions of the missile have a range of over 1,600 kilometers, and their delivery to Ukraine would be an unprecedented move, military expert David Sharp told The Insider at the time. During his meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky in mid-October, Trump gave a vague answer when asked about supplying Tomahawks, emphasizing that he wants to bring the war to an end and that the missiles are needed by the U.S. itself.
According to Reuters, Trump’s latest statements underscore that the American president does not want to see an escalation of the war. Answering questions from reporters on Nov. 2, he also said he does not intend to use Russian assets frozen abroad as leverage against Moscow during negotiations. He added that the fate of those assets is “a discussion between Europe and Russia,” and he does not plan to interfere.