Zelensky secretly demanded Tomahawk missiles from US – NYT

The delivery of a system with a range of up to 2,400 km is “totally unfeasible,” a source told the paper

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky secretly asked the US for Tomahawk missiles, the range of which far exceeds any of the Western-made weapons previously supplied to Kiev, the New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing sources. According to the paper, such a potent weapon being handed over is out of the question.

According to an unnamed senior US official, the request was part of a secret clause in Zelensky’s so-called ‘victory plan’ which the Ukrainian leader presented in parliament earlier this month. Among other things, the plan calls for the West to invite Kiev to immediately join NATO and to lift restrictions on the use of foreign-made long-range weapons for strikes against Russia.

Zelensky also asked for a “non-nuclear deterrence package” to be deployed on Ukrainian territory to keep Russia at bay. According to the NYT, the Ukrainian leader believes that this package should include Tomahawk missiles, which have a range of up to 1,500 miles (2,400km), meaning that such weapons could potentially hit targets as far away as the Urals. By comparison, the ATACMS that Kiev received from the US has a range of 300km.

NYT sources described the request as “totally unfeasible,” adding that Ukraine failed to make “a convincing case to Washington on how it would use the long-range weapons.” According to the report, Ukraine provided the US with a target list inside Russia that far exceeded the number of missiles Washington could send to Kiev without jeopardizing its footprint in the Middle East and Asia.

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The paper also noted that US officials “have privately expressed some exasperation” with Zelensky’s plan, calling it “unrealistic and dependent almost entirely on Western aid.” Earlier reports also indicated a cool reception to the road map, with some officials reportedly describing it as a “wish list.” 

The US has long been reluctant to allow Ukraine to use American-made weapons to strike deep into Russia. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has argued that Moscow has already withdrawn the warplanes that could be targeted in such attacks. 

President Vladimir Putin has warned that if the West were to allow long-range strikes using foreign-made weapons on Russia, it would mean that NATO is “waging war” against the country. He argued that Kiev would be unable to carry out such attacks on its own because they would need targeting data that can only be provided by the US-led bloc.