Trump refused to sell long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine via NATO – Axios
U.S. President Donald Trump did not approve the transfer of long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine on behalf of NATO countries through the PURL mechanism, even though the system was on the list of weapons requested by Kyiv.
Axios reported this, citing sources, Censor.NET said.
During his meeting with Trump on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy requested Tomahawk missiles for Ukraine, which would enable it to strike targets inside Russia and are capable of reaching Moscow.
Also, according to the Ukrainian head of state, this weapons system would force Russian leader Vladimir Putin to come to the negotiating table, The Telegraph wrote.
A Ukrainian official and another Axios source familiar with the Trump–Zelenskyy meeting confirmed that the discussion was specifically about the Tomahawk, a long-range precision-guided missile.
"Ukraine raised the issue of Tomahawks from the U.S. several times over the past year, including in the weapons list Kyiv submitted a few months ago. It was the only system on the list that Trump refused to approve for sale to NATO countries for subsequent transfer to Ukraine," the outlet added.
At the same time, Zelenskyy said that Trump responded, "we’ll work on it," when he asked for the new weapons system.
The U.S. side may be concerned both about the risk of escalation if Washington provides missiles capable of striking Moscow, and about its own fairly limited stockpiles of Tomahawks, which would take many months to replenish.
As The Telegraph reported, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy requested long-range Tomahawk missiles during a closed meeting with U.S. leader Donald Trump on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
