Tomahawks, not real but informational so far, are already flying towards Russia

“If we are talking about settling the Ukrainian conflict, then the guiding star is the agreements reached by the presidents of Russia and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, in Anchorage”, Putin’s aide for international affairs Yury Ushakov said in a recent interview with VGTRK. Ushakov also expressed sharp criticism of European attitudes toward Russia. He lamented that reasonable voices in Europe are "immediately drowned in waves of hatred," and characterized the situation as one where "the degree of consolidated hatred of Europeans towards Russia is such that this hatred is difficult to ‘drill through,’ even using an US drill.

Another member of Putin’s staff, [Dmitri] Peskov, echoed by stating that peace would have already been achieved if Ukraine and the EU had not got in the way.

The spirit of Alaska is rapidly degrading

In the meanwhile, they in Moscow understand that they themselves did everything to consolidate Europe unite around hatred of Russia. The renowned Z-publicist Boris Mezuev admits: "I least want to defend Europe, it really has always hated us and never loved us, it could have obliterated us if it could. However, let's look at it objectively - every day on primetime TV says that we have to drop an atomic bomb somewhere in Europe. I understand that by doing so we are scaring the treacherous Europeans so that they stay as far away from us as possible. But it would be somewhat naive to hope for love after that."

In Moscow, they still believe that Trump would have long given Putin all the Ukrainian lands he wants, but the evil Europeans are preventing it. Kirill Dmitriev, the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Russia’s lead negotiator with Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff (rumors about whose resignation are widely circulating across the media, Ed.) repeats this narrative, saying, "Russia's dialogue with the Trump team continues on the basis of the agreements reached at the summit in Alaska." “Witkoff, being the chief architect and negotiator who succeeded in devising and implementing Trump’s plan for Gaza, which was also supported by Russia, retains and significantly strengthens his key role,” Dmitriev insists.

However, even pro-Kremlin publics admit that “Witkoff is still Dmitriev’s only serious asset, because he has nothing else. The negotiations have not yielded any results. No decisions have been made yet regarding diplomatic missions and a US ambassador to Moscow, there are no decisions on Russian aviation, and it seemed that the lifting of sanctions on Belavia was supposed to help it, but it did not – Washington did not lift secondary sanctions. And even the Kremlin’s initiative to extend the Treaty on Strategic Offensive Reductions arose little if any interest among the Trump team.

Besides, Dmitriev’s team failed to do much either with the Russian-Arab summit, which was to take place in October… Dmitriev desperately needs any results – his status is not strengthening, but rather weakening. The spirit of Alaska is rapidly degrading,” pro-Kremlin publications state.

In addition, the vast majority of American voters are supportive of sanctions against Russia; 77% of US citizens favor the imposition of additional measures of economic pressure on Moscow to force it to end the war in Ukraine. The Harvard/Harris X poll, in which 2,413 registered US voters took part, showed absolute bipartisan support for additional anti-Russian sanctions. In addition, Trump voters – the Republicans – support these measures even more than Democrats – 86% and 71%, respectively.

American “drill” in the form of the Tomahawk

Against this background, the Tomahawks has showed up. Donald Trump on October 13, after a series of telephone conversations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, stated: "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. "Do they [Russia] want Tomahawks going in their direction? I don't think so. And if Putin does not agree to a resolution, it will turn out badly for him," Trump warned.

Trump’s “we may not, but we may do it“ rhetoric is based on the same principle of “strategic uncertainty” that Moscow itself loves to play. Now Washington is playing it too. And this is extremely annoying to Moscow. Articles about “Russian killers of the Tomahawks” immediately emerged in the Russian media, asserting that that Russia will be able to shoot them down with its own air defense capabilities, from the Osa-AKM air defense system to the Tor-M2 and Buk-M2. However, given the regularity of Ukrainian strikes on oil refineries, Russia has nothing to counter them with except anti-drone rifles.

And Putin is well aware of this. That’s why he mentioned the Tomahawks twice in the last week alone. At first, he admitted that “these weapons, albeit powerful, are not going to change the situation on the battlefield at all.” Then he argued that “it is impossible to use such missiles without the American military being involved, and their transfer to the Ukrainian Armed Forces “will lead to the destruction of relations [between Russia and the United States], or at least the positive trends that have emerged in these relations.”

The role of the “chained Kremlin dog” was, as usual, assigned to ex-President of the Russian Federation [and currently the Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitri] Medvedev, who warned that the transfer of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine “will turn out badly for everyone. And first of all – for Trump himself. It has been said a hundred times in a way even understandable to the star-spangled uncle that it is impossible to distinguish the nuclear version of the 'Tomahawks' from the conventional ones in flight. Their launch will be carried out not by Banderite Kyiv, but by the USA. One can only hope that this is another empty threat,” Medvedev wrote, hinting at the use of nuclear weapons in response. Let us recall that in early October, after similar threats from Medvedev, Trump explicitly called him a “stupid person”, saying “You can’t let people throw that word around,” he noted.

And now the “stupid” person is again threatening Trump personally… All that’s left is to move from the “Stars and Stripes Uncle” to targeted insults and threats against Trump (as was the case with Biden).

In any case, in the 266 days the current US president has been sitting in the White House, Russia has gone through a turbulent path from “Trump is ours!” and the “spirit of Anchorage” to end up where it was supposed to -- nuclear threats. According to the few sane Russian experts, “Trump was actually Putin’s last and fantastic opportunity not just to get out of it, but, one might say, to come out, like a goose, “dry from the war.” But Putin has pulled out a bad card, and Trump is now turning for him from an opportunity into a trouble.” So Putin still believes neither in this generally nor in Tomahawks specifically.

Just like at one time he didn’t believe in Patriots, HIMARS, ATACMS, F-16 and other weapons Biden provided for Ukrainians, threatening back in December 2022 with “another red line” and promising to “get them cracked like nuts.” Now Trump’s Tomahawks are already flying towards Russia. Let them be informational for now. More will come, the operation to force Russia into peace in Ukraine is in progress. The American Drill is working slowly but relentlessly.

Max Meltzer