U.S. Vice President JD Vance has acknowledged that the White House is actively considering proposals to sell Tomahawk missiles to European allies for use in Ukraine.
Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Vice President Vance said that the Trump administration is “looking at” sending long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, as Washington seeks to ramp up pressure on Moscow to come to the negotiating table and come to a peace agreement to end the bloody conflict.
“It’s something the President’s going to make the final determination on,” Vance said of the Tomahawks. “I’ll let the president speak to it, but I know that we’re having conversations this very minute about that issue.”
However, Vance stressed that as opposed to previous arms shipments to Ukraine, any possible missile deliveries to Kyiv would be dependent on European powers purchasing them from the United States, rather than the American taxpayer footing the bill.
“I think what has really worked about the president’s policy in Ukraine and Russia is that it’s forced the Europeans to step up in a big way. We’re no longer just giving tons of money and weapons. What we’re doing is asking the Europeans to buy that weaponry,” Vance said.
“That shows some European skin in the game. I think that gets them really invested in both what’s happening in their own backyard, but also in the peace process that the President has been pushing for the last eight months.”
The discussion surrounding the potential deployment to Ukraine of American Tomahawk missiles, which have a range of over 1,500 miles and thus could potentially strike Moscow from Ukraine, came in the wake of reports claiming that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky personally lobbied President Trump on the sidelines of the United Nation meeting in New York last week for the U.S. to sell the missiles to Europe for use against the Russians.
While President Trump has previously opposed sending long-range weapons to Ukraine, there has been a shift in the administration’s public stance in recent weeks, with Trump suggesting that Ukraine could potentially recapture all territory seized by Moscow, given the faltering domestic Russian economy.
Additionally, U.S. Special Envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, confirmed over the weekend that there is no prohibition on Ukraine from Washington on using American long-range weaponry to strike within the Russian mainland. However, the retired Lt. General said that each instance will need to have a sign-off from the President.
Commenting on the increasingly hawkish approach toward the Kremlin, Vice President Vance said that the administration’s stance will be determined by the realities “on the ground”.
Vance said, “Russia’s really stalled. They’re killing a lot of people, they themselves are losing a lot of people, and they don’t have much territorial gain to show for it. And so the President is looking at the situation and he’s saying, ‘Look, the Russian economy is in shambles, the Russians are not gaining much on the battlefield’.”
“It’s clearly time for them to listen to his passionate plea for them to come to the table and actually talk seriously about peace.”
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