Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has asked the US for Tomahawk missiles, which are capable of carrying nuclear warheads and have a range of over 1,000 miles, a request that is part of his so-called “victory plan.”
Zelensky did not make that part of his plan public, but the request was revealed by an unnamed US official speaking to The New York Times for a report that was published on Tuesday. The report said the idea of giving Ukraine Tomahawk missiles was “totally unfeasible.”
“A Tomahawk has a range of 1,500 miles, more than seven times the range of the long-range missile systems called ATACMS that Ukraine got this year. And the United States sent only a limited number of those, senior US officials said,” the report reads.
On Wednesday, Zelensky made clear that he was angry over the leak. “And this was confidential information between Ukraine and the White House. How should we understand these messages? So, it means between partners there’s nothing confidential?” he said.
Zelensky’s request for Tomahawk missiles is part of his demand for the US to support long-range Ukrainian strikes inside Russia with NATO-provided missiles. At one point, the US appeared poised to back the long-range strikes but ultimately rejected Zelensky’s plea.
Four US officials told the Times that Zelensky was “stunned” when President Biden didn’t sign off on the request for long-range strikes in Russia during a meeting they held in September. Russian President Vladimir Putin has made clear that such strikes would risk nuclear war.
The issue of Tomahawk missiles is also very sensitive since one of Putin’s main gripes with the US before he launched the invasion of Ukraine was the US establishing Aegis Ashore missile defense systems in Romania and Poland that use MK-41 launchers, which can fit Tomahawk missiles.
Any land-based version of the Tomahawk would have been prohibited under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which the US withdrew from in 2019. Since exiting the treaty, the US has developed land-based systems that can fire tomahawks, deployed one to the Philippines, and is planning to send a similar system to Germany by 2026.
