Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the delivery of US long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine will lead to “a completely new level of escalation”, particularly in relations between Moscow and Washington, but will not change the battlefield. Putin said in a speech at the Valdai Forum on 2 October.
“The use of Tomahawks without the direct involvement of US servicemen is impossible. This would mark a completely new, qualitatively new stage of escalation, in particular in relations between Russia and the United States,” Putin said.
At the same time, he noted that the restoration of full-fledged relations with Washington is in Russia’s interests.
The current U.S. administration led by Donald Trump, Putin said, declares its interests “directly, but without excessive hypocrisy.”
Under the previous administration under Joe Biden, Putin had no contact with the US leader after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Since Trump’s return to the White House in January 2025, he and Putin have already had several phone contacts and one official face-to-face meeting in Alaska.
Trump has repeatedly said that he seeks to achieve a swift end to Russia’s war in Ukraine, and to do so, he needs to stay in contact with Russia.
Recently, Donald Trump has repeatedly said that he is very disappointed in Putin because of Russia’s continued strikes in Ukraine.
Earlier this week, Trump again called Russia a “paper tiger.” Putin responded to those words by noting that Russia has been at war in recent years not with Ukraine, but with virtually all NATO countries. “And this is a paper tiger? What exactly is NATO then?” he said.
Recently, US Vice President J.D. Vance confirmed that Washington was considering transferring long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, a decision he said would be made by US President Donald Trump.
Subsequently, US Special Envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg, on Fox News Channel, when asked by the host if Trump’s position was that Ukraine could launch long-range strikes against Russia, replied, “I think given what he said, what Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Rubio have stated, the answer is yes. Use the ability to hit deep inside (Russia-red.). There are no protected areas.”
He also noted that Vladimir Zelensky asked Trump to provide Tomahawk missiles, but the decision has not yet been made.
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The other day the American edition of Axios, citing its own sources, wrote that US President Donald Trump refused to provide Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles, as requested by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
According to the report, during a meeting with Trump on 23 September in New York, Zelensky explained that the availability of such missiles could increase pressure on Russia and encourage President Vladimir Putin to come to the negotiating table, possibly even without actually using these weapons.
Axios sources with knowledge of the meeting confirmed that the request was specifically for long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles. The use of these weapons requires appropriate launchers and infrastructure, such as vertical launchers on ships or submarines, as well as command and control and guidance facilities. In the absence of such platforms, Ukraine’s ability to directly use the supplied missiles would be limited.
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Subsequently, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that the topic of discussion with the US is the provision of long-range weapons to Ukraine, without specifying exactly what types of such weapons we are talking about.
The Tomahawk missile produced by RTX has a range of up to 1,000 miles (more than 1,600 kilometres), which far exceeds the capabilities of the US ATACMS multiple launch rocket systems (about 190 miles) that are actively used by the AFU