Pentagon approves Tomahawk missile supply to Ukraine. Final decision lies with Trump – CNN
The Pentagon has given the White House the "green light" to provide Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles after assessing that doing so would not negatively impact U.S. stockpiles. The final political decision now rests with Donald Trump.
CNN reported this, citing three officials from the U.S. and Europe familiar with the matter, Censor.NET writes.
Pentagon’s decision
Earlier this month, during a working lunch with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House, Trump said he was reluctant to supply the missiles, explaining, "We don’t want to give away what we need to defend our own country."
The Joint Chiefs of Staff delivered their assessment to the White House earlier this month, just before Trump’s meeting with Zelensky, who had pressed for the missiles to more effectively strike oil and energy facilities deep inside Russia. The Tomahawks have a range of about 1,000 miles.
The assessment encouraged U.S. European allies, who now believe Washington has fewer reasons to withhold the missiles, two European officials said. Trump also said a few days before his meeting with Zelenskyy that the United States has "many Tomahawks" that could potentially be supplied to Ukraine.
U.S. concerns over the "Tomahawks"
U.S. and European officials were therefore surprised when, a few days later, Trump abruptly changed course, saying in his opening remarks at a working lunch with Zelensky that the U.S. "needs" Tomahawks. He then told Zelenskyy behind closed doors that the U.S. would not provide them, at least for now.
Although the Pentagon has no concerns about stock levels, U.S. military officials are still trying to work out how Ukraine would be trained to use the missiles and how it would deploy them, officials said.
Sources added that several operational issues still need to be resolved for Ukraine to use the missiles effectively.
One unresolved question is how Ukraine would launch the missiles if the U.S. provides them
Tomahawks are most commonly launched from surface ships or submarines, but Ukraine’s navy is heavily depleted, so the missiles would likely have to be launched from land. The Marine Corps and the Army have developed land-based launchers that could potentially be provided to Ukraine.
Alternative to Tomahawks
But even if the U.S. refuses to provide launchers, European officials believe Ukraine could find a workaround.
One official noted that Ukrainian engineers managed to devise a workaround to use the Storm Shadow missiles supplied by the UK, weapons originally designed for use from modern NATO aircraft but intended to be integrated into Ukraine’s older, Soviet-era fighter fleet.
