From: CNN Analysis by Nick Paton Walsh
London — It’s such a stark change, it is perhaps forgivable the messaging is garbled.
US President Donald Trump is considering supplying Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, according to his Vice President JD Vance.
“We are having conversations this very minute about that issue,” Vance told “Fox News Sunday,” adding Trump will make a “final determination.”
Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said the same day he believed Ukraine had the authorization to strike deep into Russia. “Use the ability to hit deep,” he said. “There are no such things as sanctuaries.” Kellogg later clarified his remarks as only referring to public statements from Vance and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and not a fresh insight into White House thinking. But Trump’s team are either seriously considering supplying Tomahawks – whose very nature means they are really only for long-range strikes into Russia – or they want everyone to think they are.
Forty-three days ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin was walking on a red carpet into The Beast in Alaska. But now the Kremlin are having to respond to the idea of the US’s most effective long-range missile being supplied to a foe that, only seven months ago, Trump said “had no cards.” Days after Trump’s Truth Social posting that Ukraine could take back all occupied territory, this is another policy 180, but one with long-range teeth.
First made famous in the 1991 Gulf War, the Tomahawk is reserved for the US’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, permitting a change during flight. The US would not supply the weapons but instead sell them to Europe to pass on to Kyiv. But have no doubt, that will not allay Moscow’s concerns the Trump administration is massively escalating and improving Ukraine’s capabilities here.
Voice of Ukraine 