Key Points and Summary – Seven months after a tense Oval Office meeting, the Trump administration’s stance on Ukraine has flipped.
-Vice President JD Vance now says Washington is considering Kyiv’s request for Tomahawk cruise missiles—likely routed via European allies, mirroring summer transfers.
USS Iowa Tomahawk Box. National Security Journal Photo.
-The shift follows President Trump’s claim that Ukraine can “fight and win” back all its territory and new pushes to cut Europe’s Russian energy buys.
-Tomahawks (1,550-mile range) would give Ukraine deep-strike options long denied by the U.S. Moscow downplayed the move, questioning who would target and launch the missiles. Final approval rests with Trump as the White House balances pressure and escalation risks.
Tomahawks for Ukraine?
It was just seven months ago that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Washington, sat in the Oval Office, and was berated by President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance. As cameras rolled in that February meeting, Vance “dressed down” the Ukrainian leader and indicated to him that the White House did not believe that Ukraine could win the war.
“I’m talking about the kind of diplomacy that’s going to end the destruction of your country,” the vice president said in the February meeting.
At the time, the new administration was within weeks of returning to the White House, after a campaign in which Trump had repeatedly promised to end the Russia/Ukraine war immediately. Trump and Vance also appeared perturbed that Zelenskyy seemed to lean towards Kamala Harris in 2024, although the Ukrainian leader had met with both candidates during visits to the United States in 2024.
A Shift in Thinking
Now, it appears, the posture of the White House, including that of the vice president, has changed dramatically.
Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Wash. (Aug. 14, 2003) — Illustration of USS Ohio (SSGN 726) which is undergoing a conversion from a Ballistic Missile Submarine (SSBN) to a Guided Missile Submarine (SSGN) designation. Ohio has been out of service since Oct. 29, 2002 for conversion to SSGN at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. Four Ohio-class strategic missile submarines, USS Ohio (SSBN 726), USS Michigan (SSBN 727) USS Florida (SSBN 728), and USS Georgia (SSBN 729) have been selected for transformation into a new platform, designated SSGN. The SSGNs will have the capability to support and launch up to 154 Tomahawk missiles, a significant increase in capacity compared to other platforms. The 22 missile tubes also will provide the capability to carry other payloads, such as unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and Special Forces equipment. This new platform will also have the capability to carry and support more than 66 Navy SEALs (Sea, Air and Land) and insert them clandestinely into potential conflict areas. U.S. Navy illustration. (RELEASED)
With Russia not making any significant moves toward ending the war, Trump appears to have lost patience with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump has approved more weapons for Ukraine while running them through NATO allies, while also pushing those allies to no longer purchase energy from Russia.
And last week, the president declared on social media that Ukraine is “in a position to fight and win all of Ukraine back in its original form,” meaning recapturing territory lost to Russia since the beginning of the war.
And now, the vice president is declaring Ukraine might receive some long-sought-after weapons.
Here Come the Tomahawks
In a Fox News interview on Sunday, as reported by Reuters, Vance revealed that the U.S. is considering Ukraine’s request for Tomahawk missiles. It would work like the weapons sales from this summer, in which the Tomahawks would be sold to European allies, who would then make them available to Ukraine.
“We’re certainly looking at a number of requests from the Europeans,” Vance said on the Sunday show, on which host Martha MacCallum interviewed him.
The Daily Telegraph had reported last week that Ukraine had specifically asked for Tomahawks during Zelenskyy’s meeting with Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
President Donald J. Trump and President Zelenskyy in the Oval Office. White House Photo.
Tomahawk missiles, Reuters said, “have a range of 2,500 km (1,550 miles).” It’s the sort of long-range missile that Ukraine has been requesting for a long time, but which the U.S. has resisted making available to them.
“We’ve been actively pursuing peace from the very beginning of the administration, but the Russians have got to wake up and accept reality here. A lot of people are dying. They don’t have a lot to show for it,” Vance also said on the Fox show.
“The Russian economy is in shambles. The Russians are not gaining much on the battlefield. It’s clearly time for them to listen to his passionate plea for them to come to the table and actually talk seriously about peace,” the vice president added, per Politico.
Vance added that Trump will make the final determination on whether to route the Tomahawks to Ukraine.
Russia Reacts
Newsweek reported on Russia’s reaction to the Vance comments on Tomahawk sales. According to the report, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that there is “no panacea” for Ukraine in the war.
“We have heard these statements,” Peskov said in a press statement on Monday, per Newsweek. “We are carefully analyzing them. Our military specialists are closely monitoring this.”
“The question, as before, is the following: Who can launch these missiles, even if they end up on the territory of the Kyiv regime?,” the spokesman added. “Can they be launched only by Ukrainians, or must it still be done by American military personnel? Who provides the targeting for these missiles? A very deep analysis is needed here.”
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist, and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, national security, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
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Swamplaw Yankee
September 29, 2025 at 11:04 am
Chatting with the designer of the Tomahawk over dinner, as I admired his Presidential gifts of real artifacts of aboriginal tomahawks, the concept of land versus sea launch ( inter alia) came up.
Just ship over to Ukraine the surplus land launchers that come up in a few weeks. Make it a donation, MAGA POTUS elite thinkers! If the USA diddles too long, other makers are eager to satisfy this urgent need to defelct the genocide urge of Putin’s orcs. -30-