Summary
- Volodymyr
Zelenskyy scheduled to meet President Donald Trump at White House. - Meeting
expected to focus on possible supply of Tomahawk missiles. - Zelenskyy
seeks increased defense support amid ongoing conflict with Russia.
Recently, the US president has made several indications that
he would provide Tomahawks, giving Kyiv its longest-range weapon yet that could
hit Moscow with precise, devastating warheads.
“If this war doesn’t get settled, I may send Tomahawks,”
Trump told reporters on Sunday.
“A Tomahawk is an incredible weapon. And Russia
does not need that. If the war is not settled, we may do it. We may not. But we
may do it.”
Up to 1,500 miles can be covered by the missile.
Trump has indicated that he is keen to build on the momentum
of that diplomatic win by applying further pressure on Moscow to halt Vladimir
Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which is currently in its fourth year,
after recently mediating a peace agreement in Gaza.
Trump announced
on the eve of Zelenskyy’s arrival that he would meet Putin in Budapest, the
capital of Hungary, on an unspecified date in an attempt to bring the war to a
close.
The announcement of another Trump-Putin summit followed a
phone call with the Russian president. “I believe great progress was made,”
Trump said on social media of the call.
Trump has already threatened to put crushing penalties on
Russia’s economy and set deadlines for Moscow, only to back down. After meeting
or conversing with Putin, he has often loosened his position.
Although it would be symbolic to deliver Tomahawks the
concept of which has already irritated the Kremlin they are only available in
comparatively modest quantities, with some experts estimating that there are
between 20 and 50 missiles.
In a startling reversal from the White House dressing-down
in February that had exposed the breach between the two leaders, Trump and
Zelenskyy spoke on the phone twice over the weekend in what the Ukrainian
president called “productive” discussions.
“He [Zelenskyy] would like to have Tomahawks,”
Trump said on
Tuesday. We have a lot of Tomahawks.
Ukraine lacks the ships and submarines that are typically
used to launch Tomahawks, which were first employed in war in 1991. With a
range that puts Moscow well within reach and a significantly higher destructive
potential than long-range drones, they are projected to cost $1.3 million (£1
million) each.
Although launchers are few, there is also a more recent
land-launched version, the Typhon, that is clearly more appropriate for
Ukraine. Although the X-Mav, a launcher thought to be more mobile than the
Typhon, was unveiled this week, the US army is only known to possess two.
Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research
Institute, said:
“My understanding is that US doesn’t have a lot of Tomahawks.
There are launchers that can launch them from the ground, but the military
doesn’t have many of them.”
Pavel Luzin, an independent Russian military analyst, said:
“The Typhon system itself is new, still being produced for the US military. And
it’s not just a launcher – it includes transport and reloading vehicles as well
as a dedicated command post.”
The Trump administration has approved the sharing of US
information in recent weeks to assist Ukraine in launching targeted strikes on
Russian oil refineries with US-supplied Atacms missiles and domestically built
drones. Fuel shortages and a dramatic increase in gas prices have resulted from
these attacks throughout Russia.
Although the cruise missiles are typically seen to be most
effective when launched in salvos, which would be challenging with limited
numbers, politicians and academics think the missiles may support that
strategy.
What will Zelenskyy ask Trump regarding long‑range missiles?
As he is about to meet with US President Donald Trump,
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to make a very visible push
for long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles.
The missiles have a maximum range of about 2,500 kilometers,
which would allow Ukraine to reach and strike critical Russian military and
strategic assets deep inside Russia, even near Moscow. Zelenskyy is seeing
these missiles as an effective means of deterring and countering Russian
aggressions more effectively by increasing the pressure on Russian military
infrastructure.
Zelensky has indicated that they would not be using these
missiles against anything other than Russian military targets, and that the
proposed supply of Tomahawks would be significant enough of a supply to help
bring an end to the war.
