Ukraine will not strike Russian civilians if US provides Tomahawk missiles, Zelensky says
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (left) said he was still trying to convince US President Donald Trump to approve a missile deal.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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KYIV – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine would only use Tomahawk missiles for military purposes and not attack civilians in Russia, should the US provide them.
“We never attacked their civilians. This is the big difference between Ukraine and Russia,” the Ukrainian leader said on the Fox News Sunday Briefing programme. “That’s why, if we speak about long-range (missiles), we speak only about military goals.”
Mr Zelensky’s comments, which were recorded on Oct 11, aired on Oct 12 after his second talks in as many days with US President Donald Trump.
The Ukrainian leader said they are still discussing the possibility that Washington might provide Kyiv with the long-range missiles.
Mr Trump said last week that before agreeing to provide Tomahawks he wants to know how Ukraine would use them
Mr Zelensky said he was still working on trying to convince Mr Trump to approve a missile deal.
“We count on such decisions, but we’ll see,” Mr Zelensky said. Tomahawk missiles have a range of 2,500km, long enough to strike deep inside Russia, including Moscow.
The Kremlin has warned against any provision of Tomahawks
Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier in October that it was impossible to use Tomahawks without the direct participation of US military personnel and so any supply of such missiles to Ukraine would trigger a “qualitatively new stage of escalation.”
Still, Mr Zelensky, in an Oct 12 evening address in Ukraine, said he saw Russia’s concerns as reason to press forward.
“We see and hear that Russia is afraid that the Americans may give us Tomahawks – that this kind of pressure may work for peace,” Mr Zelensky said.
The war in Ukraine is Europe’s deadliest since World War II, and Russian officials say they are now in a “hot” conflict with the West.
Mr Putin portrays it as a watershed moment in Moscow’s relations with the West, which he says humiliated Russia after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union by enlarging Nato and encroaching on what he considers Moscow’s sphere of influence, including Ukraine and Georgia.
Ukraine and its allies have cast it as an imperial-style land grab and have repeatedly vowed to defeat Russian forces. REUTERS
