Asked by reporters on Air Force One on Sunday whether he would provide Kyiv with Tomahawks, Trump replied: "We'll see... I may". The missiles would be "a new step of aggression" in Ukraine's war with Russia, he said. The comments follow a phone call at the weekend between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who pushed for stronger military capabilities to launch counter-attacks against Russia. Moscow has previously warned Washington against providing long-range missiles to Kyiv, saying it would cause a major escalation in the conflict and strain US-Russian relations.

Tomahawk missiles have a range of 2,500 km (1,500 miles), which would put Moscow within reach of Ukraine. Trump's attitude to Russia has hardened in recent months as he has become impatient with Vladimir Putin's lack of cooperation in reaching a ceasefire deal with Kyiv. "I might tell them [Russia] that if the war is not settled, that we may very well, (send Tomahawks to Kyiv) we may not, but we may do it," he said. "Do they (Russia) want Tomahawks going in their direction? I don't think so," the US president added. On Sunday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the topic of Tomahawks was of "extreme concern" to Russia. "Now is really a very dramatic moment in terms of the fact that tensions are escalating from all sides," he said.

In September Peskov had dismissed the threat of Tomahawks, saying they would not be able to "change the dynamic" of the war. But in his comments on Sunday he noted that if Tomahawks were launched at Russia Moscow would not be able to tell whether they were carrying nuclear warheads. "What should the Russian Federation think? Just how should Russia react?", he said. (BBC)