Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated Thursday that discussions over a switch of navy belongings from the USA — together with its coveted Tomahawk cruise missiles — has motivated Russian President Vladimir Putin to satisfy President Donald Trump in Budapest, a brand new diplomatic reserving that Trump introduced on Reality Social Thursday.
Trump’s announcement of a gathering with Putin — which he stated would happen within the subsequent two weeks — comes a day earlier than he’ll meet with Zelenskyy for the third time in Washington and as U.S. officers have touted a brand new mechanism by which European allies buy American-made navy {hardware} for Ukraine’s struggle.
Trump has mused publicly about the potential for sending the Tomahawks, which have a spread of as much as 1,500 miles, to Ukraine, whereas Zelenskyy has stated a sale of the long-range weapons might bolster its conflict effort.
Trump stated that he and Putin “did not say a lot” concerning the subject of Tomahawks in a cellphone name Thursday, however they “did speak about it a bit bit.” The president hedged on the potential for releasing the missiles from the U.S. stockpile, noting “we’d like Tomahawks for the USA.”
Sailors assigned to Navy Munitions Command Pacific, East Asia Division, Unit Guam load UGM-109 Tomahawk missiles onto the Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS Jefferson Metropolis, Might 6, 2025.
U.S. Navy
“We are able to’t deplete [them] for our nation,” he stated. “I don’t know what we are able to do about that.”
Trump was extra bullish on Sunday, saying “If this conflict will not be going to get settled, I’ll ship them Tomahawks.”
Upon touchdown in Washington Thursday, Zelenskyy stated the settlement for a Budapest assembly was a product of the united statess public strain.
“Moscow is dashing to renew dialogue as quickly because it hears about Tomahawks,” he wrote on X.
In a gathering of U.S. officers and a Ukrainian delegation in Washington, officers on either side welcomed the information of a Trump-Putin assembly, in keeping with a U.S. official. The officers believed Trump’s cellphone name with Putin might yield progress for his assembly with Zelenskyy on Friday, the supply stated.
Tomahawks: Scarce however impactful
The U.S. must watch out doling out the missiles in mild of “underinvestment” in its munitions stockpile, stated Tom Karako, the director of the Missile Protection Challenge on the Facilities for Strategic and Worldwide Safety.
The U.S. has already expended the Tomahawks in “comparatively low-risk operations,” Karako stated.
“These are scarce non-nuclear strategic belongings, they usually have to be husbanded and stewarded” for high-value targets, Karako stated. “Degrading high-value Russian belongings strikes me as precisely the form of factor they’re good for.”
The deep vary and heavy payloads deliverable by the Tomahawks would “allow a ‘Spiderweb’ operation at vary,” Karako stated, referring to Ukraine’s stealth assault on Russian navy belongings utilizing drones hidden inside Russia. “You do not have to smuggle stuff into Russia” if Ukraine is supplied with Tomahawks and the mandatory programs to launch them from land.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President Donald Trump meet within the Oval Workplace of the White Home in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 18, 2025.
Mandel Ngan/AFP through Getty Photos
However the U.S. has solely not too long ago developed a really small variety of the ground-based launchers required for the missiles, elevating the query of whether or not it is able to offering Ukraine with launchers on brief discover.
The U.S. Military obtained a prototype for the Typhon missile launcher in 2022 and has operationalized it solely not too long ago. The Typhon is basically a big tractor-trailer and lacks the mobility wanted for the battlefields of Ukraine.
In its finances proposal for subsequent 12 months, the Marine Corps killed its Lengthy Vary Fires program that grew to become operational in 2023 in restricted numbers. That system was additionally able to launching Tomahawk missiles, however the Marine Corps felt it was not cellular sufficient for its wants.
The Military has now taken over this system as a means to enhance upon the mobility limitations of its present Typhon system.
Oshkosh Protection launched at a symposium of the Affiliation of the U.S. Military this week a brand new, more-compact car from which Tomahawks could be launched.
The platform, which Oshkosh calls “the way forward for long-range munitions,” will not be at the moment in manufacturing, an organization spokesperson informed ABC Information.
Nonetheless, if the U.S. might present the missiles and a complementary platform, the weapons system might be a tactical menace to Moscow, Karako stated.
Ukraine might anticipate “a chilling impact on the benefit with which Russia has been in a position to function with impunity not removed from the Ukrainian border,” he added.
They might nearly actually include U.S. circumstances for focusing on, Karako stated.
“I might not anticipate them to fly by the window of the Kremlin,” he stated.
Zelenskyy has dedicated to utilizing the weapons just for “navy targets.”
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet throughout a U.S.-Russia summit on Ukraine at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on Aug. 15, 2025.
Andrew Caballero-reynolds/AFP through Getty Photos
Trump administration’s tone shift
Hypothesis over Tomahawks — and indicators from Washington and Moscow — have come amid a shift in tone from the Trump administration after the president’s bilateral assembly with Putin in Alaska didn’t yield the trilateral assembly, together with Zelenskyy, that he sought.
The Kremlin has stated a sale of Tomahawks by the U.S. would characterize an “escalation.”
The Ukrainians, in the meantime, have pointed to different weapons programs as part of their want record, together with Patriot air protection programs.
U.S. allies in Europe have been buying U.S. navy belongings for Ukraine through the Prioritized Ukraine Necessities Checklist, or PURL — an initiative spearheaded by Trump to arm Ukraine with out spending U.S. funds and touted by Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth in a gathering of NATO allies Wednesday.
In remarks in Brussels, Hegseth known as Russia’s conflict in Ukraine “continued aggression,” verbiage he is been hesitant to make use of previously.
“If this conflict doesn’t finish, if there is no such thing as a path to peace within the brief time period, then the USA, together with our allies, will take the steps essential to impose prices on Russia for its continued aggression,” Hegseth stated.
A European diplomatic supply informed ABC Information that Patriot air defenses from the U.S. have been mentioned underneath the PURL mechanism, however that new arms gross sales for Ukraine will largely rely upon the high-stakes assembly between Trump and Zelenskyy on Friday.
Matthew Whitaker, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, stated this week that Tomahawks would put “a whole lot of Russian oil and gasoline infrastructure in danger.”
“Putin’s going to proceed to get weaker and weaker,” Whitaker stated. The choice of whether or not to ship them to Ukraine, although, would rely upon the president, he stated.
