Pentagon clears Tomahawk missiles for Ukraine, but final decision lies with Trump – CNN
CNN reported this on Friday, citing three U.S. and European officials familiar with the matter, according to Ukrinform.
"While the Pentagon doesn't have concerns about stockpiles, U.S. defense officials are still grappling with how Ukraine would train on and deploy the missiles," the article reads.
The Joint Staff informed the White House of its assessment earlier in October. Trump also said just days before meeting Zelensky that the U.S. has "a lot of Tomahawks" that it could potentially give to Ukraine. After a phone call with Putin, however, Trump changed his position.
According to CNN, Putin told Trump that Tomahawks could strike large Russian cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg, that they would have limited impact on the course of combat, but that their use would harm U.S.-Russia relations. The White House and Pentagon did not return requests for comment.
Trump has not taken the missiles off the table altogether, sources previously told CNN, and the administration has drawn up plans to provide them to Ukraine quickly should Trump give the order.
"Trump has also grown so frustrated in recent weeks with Putin's unwillingness to seriously consider peace talks that he approved new US sanctions on Russian oil firms last week and scrapped — for now — a planned meeting with Putin in Budapest to discuss Ukraine," the article reads.
Sources say there are still several operational issues that would need to be resolved for Ukraine to be able to use the missiles effectively. One outstanding question is how Ukraine would fire the missiles if the U.S. provided them.
"Tomahawks are most commonly launched from surface ships or submarines, but Ukraine's Navy is severely depleted, so the missiles would likely need to be launched on land," the article reads.
The Marine Corps and Army have developed ground-based launchers that could be provided to Ukraine. But even if the U.S. did not want to provide the launchers, European officials believe Ukraine could figure out a workaround, CNN added.
One official pointed out that Ukrainian engineers were able to develop a workaround to use the UK-provided Storm Shadow missiles, which were originally designed to be used by modern NATO aircraft and had to be integrated into Ukraine's aging, Soviet-era fighter jet fleet.
