Long-range missile puts Moscow in striking distance: US considers sending Tomahawks to Ukraine
US President Donald Trump has said he is considering sending Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine unless Russia ends the war.
Speaking aboard Air Force One as he travelled to Israel, Mr Trump told reporters: "Do they [Russia] want Tomahawks going in their direction? I don't think so".
It follows a request by Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of a recent United Nations General Assembly meeting.
Mr Zelensky is believed to have told the US president that the hi-tech weapon system would help to bring Russian president Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and would even allow Kyiv's forces to target the Kremlin.
Russia responds
Posting on Telegram in response to Mr Trump's comments, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the delivery of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine could end badly for everyone, including for Mr Trump himself.
"It's been said a hundred times, in a manner understandable even to the star-spangled man, that it's impossible to distinguish a nuclear Tomahawk from a conventional one in flight," Mr Medvedev added.
The Tomahawk: a missile that puts Moscow in striking range
The BGM-109 Tomahawk land attack missile (TLAM) is an all-weather, jet-powered, sub-sonic cruise missile developed by the US in the early 1980s.
It has a range of 1,500 miles and uses inertial guidance or GPS to follow a preset course, as well as terrain contour matching (TERCOM).
As it flies towards its target, the missile compares a digital map with the terrain below and corrects its course.
Tomahawks are ship or submarine-launched, but the US has carried out tests on a ground-based launch system.
The BGM-109 came to prominence during the 1991 Gulf War when the US fired hundreds into Iraq to destroy Saddam Hussein's military infrastructure and command and control.
The US has deployed them during the conflicts in Bosnia, Afghanistan, Yemen, and, more recently, 30 were fired against nuclear sites in Iran.
The Royal Navy operates the Tomahawk from its nuclear attack submarines and used them in combat during the wars in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Flamingo
At the same time as asking for Tomahawk, Kyiv is developing its own long-range cruise missile called the Flamingo, which its makers, Fire Point, claim is more advanced than the US weapon.
They say it is faster (590mph vs 550mph) and has a longer range (1,800 miles vs 1,500 miles) and has already been used to attack targets deep inside Russia.
Kyiv's previous attempts to get the missile
This is not the first time Mr Zelensky has asked for Tomahawks.
The New York Times reported last October that he made a similar request to former president Joe Biden as part of his so-called "Victory Plan".
That request was rebuffed by the former administration, with President Zelensky angry that the information had been leaked.
The United States has been Ukraine's most important source of military assistance since Russia's February 2022 invasion.
But so far, it has tried to avoid anything that might trigger nuclear-armed Russia into a wider conflict.
Washington does not allow Ukraine to fire long-range US weapons at military targets inside Russia despite repeated calls by Kyiv for a change in policy.
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