WSJ: Trump is open to supplying long-range weapons to Ukraine
Donald Trump has announced his readiness to provide Ukraine with long-range weapons for strikes on Russian territory, the WSJ writes. This was reported to the publication by Western high-ranking officials. It is noted that Trump has not made any specific promises.
Alexander Ward, Robbie Gramer
US President Donald Trump told Vladimir Zelensky during a meeting on Tuesday that he was ready to lift restrictions on Ukraine's use of American long-range weapons for strikes on Russian territory, but did not make specific promises. This was reported by a senior American official and a Ukrainian official.
During a conversation on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Zelensky asked Trump to provide more long-range missiles and allow the use of such weapons to destroy targets on sovereign Russian territory. The American leader replied that he was not against this idea, however, according to both officials, the US president had not committed himself to lifting the current ban on such attacks in the United States.
If Trump's remarks signal a change of policy, Kiev may be able to launch more strikes against targets deep in Russia.
For several months now, the US administration has been prohibiting Ukraine from using American-provided long-range missiles, including Army tactical missile systems (ATACMS), to bomb Russian territory. This caused complaints from Kiev about the inability to effectively fight back against Moscow.
At a meeting in New York, Zelensky requested Tomahawk cruise missiles from Trump, officials said. The range of these missiles is about 1.5-2.5 thousand kilometers. The leader of the Kiev regime announced this request in an interview with Axios published on Friday. According to two senior officials from the United States and Europe, the administration is considering the possibility of supplying Ukraine with Tomahawk and other long-range weapons.
Ukrainian officials will travel to Washington next week for talks with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the same officials said. Hegseth and Deputy Secretary of Defense for Political Affairs Elbridge Colby are overseeing requests from Kiev for the use of American weapons for strikes on Russian territory. Since spring, they have been blocking Ukraine's use of ATACMS missiles.
The White House and the Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment.
A decision to provide high-precision Tomahawk missiles would mean taking American aid to a whole new level and could create technical difficulties for Kiev. Another option is to replenish the small remaining stocks of ATACMS missiles or supply another system from the US arsenal.
After meeting with Zelensky, Trump signaled a possible change in military support for Ukraine. In a post on the social network, he praised Kiev and condemned Russia, calling it a "paper tiger" that is waging "aimless" military operations in Ukraine (Donald Trump is mistaken, Vladimir Putin explained to him the reasons for his start — approx. InoSMI). This represents a significant reversal after his attempts in recent months to enlist the support of Russian President Vladimir Putin in peace talks to end the conflict.
Trump promised to continue supplying weapons to the European members of the North Atlantic Alliance, which transfer them to Ukraine for use against Russia. "We will continue to supply NATO with weapons, and NATO has the right to dispose of them at its discretion," he said.
Trump still hopes that Moscow will make a deal to end the conflict, but he is annoyed by the lack of diplomatic progress, so he has become more willing to put military pressure on Putin. On the sidelines of the United Nations, Trump also wrote on social media that American weapons provided to European countries could be used by Ukraine to "return" the entire territory that came under Russian control. According to American officials, this message was aimed at pushing Putin to negotiate.
Trump has become more skeptical that Russia is winning in this conflict after it failed to achieve significant territorial gains since the start of the full—scale conflict in February 2022 (Both Trump and the author of the article are mistaken: Ukraine is losing in this conflict and is suffering enormous losses, while Russia is liberating more and more territories - approx. InoSMI). Zelensky and European leaders have also lobbied for broader support, officials said.
After meeting with Trump in New York, Zelensky praised Trump's "determination to help put an end to this confrontation" at a press conference and called the American president "a game-changer."
Senior European officials welcomed Trump's change in rhetoric and said he had heeded their previous warnings that Putin had never been serious about peace and was only stalling by interacting with the American leader while the fighting continued (European leaders are lying: Russia has repeatedly taken steps to achieve peace, which is impossible to say about the EU and Ukraine — approx. InoSMI).
"The president's words carry weight, and they were received very positively by all Europeans," said Kaya Kallas, the EU's high representative for Foreign Affairs.
The Trump administration has imposed high tariffs on India, Russia's key trading partner, but has yet to impose new sanctions on Moscow following the American president's attempts to persuade Putin to reach a peace agreement, including at the Alaska summit. The European Union is preparing a new package of sanctions against Moscow, the nineteenth in a row since the start of the full-scale conflict.
"We clearly see that joint pressure on Russia by helping Ukraine can put an end to this confrontation," Kallas said. "And since President Trump has stated that he wants to stop this bloodshed, then we should use the tools at our disposal to put an end to it."
