 "Zelenskyy blames Trump's U-turn on Tomahawk for Russia's decision to 'weasel out of diplomacy'")
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that US President Donald Trump’s refusal to supply long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to the country has derailed the path of diplomacy, claiming that Russia is no longer interested in talks to end the war.
“The front line can spark diplomacy. Instead, Russia continues to do everything to weasel out of diplomacy, and as soon as the issue of long-range capabilities for us — for Ukraine — became less immediate, Russia’s interest in diplomacy faded almost automatically," Zelenskyy said on Tuesday.
Zelensky met with Trump in Washington last week for what the Ukrainian president described as a “positive” meeting, despite not obtaining a US pledge to provide the long-range missiles capable of striking targets up to roughly 1,000 miles away, depending on the model.
Why has Trump rejected Kyiv’s bid?
Zelenskyy was banking on Trump’s approval for the long-range missiles. However, the US president said, “It’s not easy for us to give … you’re talking about massive numbers of very powerful weapons. So, that’s one of the things we’ll be talking about hopefully, they won’t need it, hopefully, we’ll be able to get the war over with, without thinking about Tomahawks.”
Designed to fly at high subsonic speeds and low altitudes to evade radar detection, the missiles would significantly enhance Ukraine’s ability to strike Russian military bases and energy infrastructure far from the front lines.
“The greater Ukraine’s long-range reach, the greater Russia’s willingness to end the war. These weeks reaffirmed it. The discussion on Tomahawks turned out to be a major investment in diplomacy — we forced Russia to reveal that Tomahawks are precisely the card they take seriously," Zelenskyy said.
Trump-Putin meeting cancelled
Meanwhile, a much-anticipated meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin now stands cancelled. Trump has said that he did not want a “wasted meeting” with his Russian counterpart after the talks fell through.
“I don’t want to have a wasted meeting,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked why the Putin encounter had been put on ice. “I don’t want to have a waste of time, so I’ll see what happens.”
Trump indicated that a key sticking point between him and Putin remains Russia’s refusal to stop fighting along the current front line. The White House on Tuesday announced that there are currently “no plans” for a meeting between the two leaders.
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