Zelenskiy hints Ukraine seeking Tomahawk missiles from US

PHOTO CAPTION: The guided-missile cruiser USS Monterey (CG 61) fires a Tomahawk land attack missile April 14, 2018. (U.S. Navy photo by Lt. j.g. Matthew Daniels via U.S. Defense Visual Information Distribution Service)

(Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy strongly suggested in a video released on Wednesday that Kyiv has requested supplies of long-range U.S. Tomahawk missiles, as he made critical remarks about "confidential" information he said had been leaked.

Tomahawk missiles have a range of 2,500 km (1,550 miles), far greater than any missile Ukraine currently has in its arsenal. Such a weapons delivery would almost certainly be seen by Russia as an escalation in its war in Ukraine.

Zelenskiy travelled to the United States last month to pitch a "victory plan" to President Joe Biden, which he said could help pressure Moscow to negotiate an end to the war in good faith.

The Ukrainian leader has since said the plan envisages a "non-nuclear deterrence package" that would only be used if Moscow does not end its full-scale invasion and continues to escalate the conflict.

Some of the plan's details have been kept confidential, something Zelenskiy alluded to in remarks in English to Nordic journalists on Tuesday that were published in full on his Telegram page on Wednesday.

"When a lot of countries began to support the victory plan, you see what's going on now in media – they said that Ukraine wanted a lot of missiles, like Tomahawks etc. But it was confidential information – between Ukraine and the White House. How to understand these messages?"

Zelenskiy added: "So it means between partners – there’s no any confidential things."

The New York Times cited a senior U.S. official on Tuesday as saying that Zelenskiy had asked for Tomahawk missiles, something the official said was totally unfeasible.

The United States has been Ukraine's most important source of military assistance since Russia's February 2022 invasion, but also sought not to do anything that might prompt nuclear-armed Russia to respond harshly or widen the conflict.

The United States does not, for instance, allow Ukraine to fire Western weapons at military targets deep into Russia despite repeated calls by Kyiv to allow that.

Ukraine has developed its own long-range attack drones during the war and used them to strike targets well inside Russia.



(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa; writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Mark Heinrich)