U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Oct. 6 that he has “sort of made a decision” on selling Tomahawk cruise missiles to Europe, for them to be supplied to Ukraine. Trump said he wants to know what the Ukrainians plan to do with the missiles before he supplies them. “Where they are sending them, I guess I will have to ask that question. I would ask some questions. I am not looking to see an escalation,” he said.
A Ukrainian official and a source close to the Ukrainian government told Axios they didn’t know what Trump’s decision was. The source close to the Ukrainian government said Trump administration officials had expressed concerns in recent weeks about whether the U.S. would be able to control Ukraine’s use of the missiles after they had been bought and paid for by NATO countries.
Axios notes that Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned against the U.S. supplying Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, stressing that Ukraine could not use the missiles without direct participation from the U.S., which would put the United States and Russia in direct confrontation and destroy any positive progress in the relations between the countries.
