‘This will lead to the destruction of our relations, or at least the positive trends that have emerged in these relations,’ Putin said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow’s relationship with Washington would be destroyed if the United States supplies Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine for long-range strikes deep into Russian territory.
“This will lead to the destruction of our relations, or at least the positive trends that have emerged in these relations,” Putin said in a video clip released on Oct. 5 by Russian state television reporter Pavel Zarubin.
In less than two months since Putin met with U.S. President Donald Trump at a summit in Alaska, peace between Moscow and Kyiv looks even further out of grasp, with Russia sending forces advancing into Ukraine and drones allegedly flying into NATO airspace while the United States takes a stronger stance on participating in deep strikes into its former Cold War nemesis.
Trump has referred to Russia as a “paper tiger” due to its inability to overtake Ukraine following its 2022 invasion, and that he is disappointed with Putin for not agreeing to peace. Putin has, in turn, cast NATO as a paper tiger for failing to stop Russia’s advance into Ukraine.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance recently said that the United States was considering Ukraine’s request for obtaining long-range Tomahawks for striking deep into Russian territory, including its capital Moscow, although it’s not clear if a final decision was made.
“We’re looking at it. We’re certainly looking at a number of requests from the Europeans,” Vance told Fox News in an interview aired on Sept. 28.
Trump would make the “final determination” on whether to grant Ukraine’s request for the weapons, which would be paid for by European nations, Vance added.
“What the president is going to do is [based on] what’s in the best interest of the United States of America,“ he said. ”That’s the driving light between his foreign policy decisions, between his defense policy decisions, and that will be the same heuristic that we apply to how we answer this question about Tomahawks.”
By Jacob Burg
