Donald Trump’s four-word reply to Zelensky’s ‘drones for Tomahawk’ proposal

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to advocate for US-supplied Tomahawk cruise missiles during today’s White House meeting with President Donald Trump, viewing them as a means to extend Kyiv’s reach deep into Russian territory and incentivise Moscow toward a negotiated resolution.

Such capabilities would surpass limitations of existing Western arms like ATACMS, which are capped at 300 kilometres, potentially allowing Ukraine to disrupt distant Russian logistics, command centres, and energy networks that sustain the invasion.

The Tomahawk, a versatile US subsonic cruise missile, spans roughly 6.25 metres in length with a 0.52-metre diameter, tips the scales at up to 1,600 kilograms with its booster, and can deliver precision payloads over 1,600 kilometres via stealthy low-altitude trajectories to bypass defences.

Deployable from naval vessels, submarines, or land-based launchers, it integrates GPS and digital scene-matching for pinpoint accuracy, a design honed against fortified Soviet-era threats that could now tilt the war’s strategic dynamics.

Although Mr Trump has signalled openness to the transfer as leverage if Putin spurns talks, the Kremlin has decried it as a perilous escalation threshold, one that might ensnare Russian heartlands and amplify risks of uncontrolled broadening conflict.