WASHINGTON, DC: US President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday from the Oval Office that he wants to know what Ukraine is planning to do if the Tomahawk missiles are supplied to them. He reiterated the call for an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict in his remarks, noting that he does not want to see an escalation.
When asked by reporters if he had decided on whether to supply Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine or sell them to NATO and let them sell them to Ukraine, Trump said, “I think I want to find out what they’re doing with them. You know, where are they sending them? I guess I have to ask that question that war should never have started. Would have never started such bad judgment was used there, I think on both sides, by the way. But nobody looks good with the war- with Russia and Ukraine. Nobody. It’s been horrible. This week they lost over 7000 soldiers. Between the two of them, is every week they’re losing 7000, 8000, 5000…I’m not looking to see escalation”
Kyiv has long been requesting powerful long-range missiles to strike deep inside Russia, but its Western allies, which are a part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), have mostly been reluctant, Al Jazeera reported.
Tomahawk missiles are long-range, subsonic cruise missiles used by the US Navy for precise land strikes, and can be launched from ships, ground launchers or submarines.
These were first made famous during the 1991 Gulf War and are reserved for America’s closest allies, including the United Kingdom and Japan. Its four models range up to the latest version, Block IV, which can feed back live information on targets below, allowing for changes during flight, CNN reported.
The missile has a long range with deep-strike capabilities and can hit targets 1,250-2,500 kms away, with a speed of 880km/h.
Al Jazeera added that these missiles carry high-explosive warheads designed to penetrate hardened targets, such as military bunkers. Tomahawks are also fast: They avoid radar detection by flying at high subsonic speeds while maintaining low altitudes.
The US Navy has used Tomahawks since the 1970s. The missiles are currently manufactured solely by US weapons producer RTX.
The involvement of Tomahawks holds the potential to plummet the ties between the US and Russia, which had seen a positive momentum in recent times, most significantly after the Alaska Summit in August earlier this year.
On October 2 while speaking at the 22nd annual meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club, when asked about the discussions in West about the supply of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the use of Tomahawks would be “detrimental” to the ties between Moscow and Washington DC, which have finally started to see the light, and would commence a new stage of the escalation.
“Will this damage our relations, considering that we have finally started seeing light at the end of the tunnel? Of course, this would be detrimental to our relations. How can it be otherwise? You cannot use the Tomahawks without the direct involvement of US military personnel. This would signal the advent of a totally new stage in this escalation, including in terms of Russia’s relations with the United States,” Putin said. (ANI)
