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The war in Ukraine continues, but there is a weapon that Zelensky has been seeking that could change the situation...
President Donald Trump appears to have decided not to supply Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles, following important talks with Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.
The Tomahawk Land Attack Missile is a long-range cruise missile that is typically launched from the sea to attack targets deep in enemy territory.
With a range of 2,500 km (1,500 miles), 1,945 Russian military assets and the city of Moscow would have been within the weapon's range, dramatically expanding Ukraine's retaliation against the Russian invasion.
Trump had previously hinted that he would provide weapons to NATO, which could then supply Ukraine.
"I can say, 'look, if this war is not resolved, I'm going to send them Tomahawks,'" the US President told reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew to Israel earlier this week.
But after the White House meeting on Saturday, Trump appeared to have cooled on the idea, saying he hoped to end the war without the Tomahawk. But what changed Trump's mind?
The risk of nuclear war
Russia has made it clear that supplying the Tomahawk would escalate the war and could even cause nuclear war.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned that it was impossible to distinguish between Tomahawk missiles carrying nuclear warheads and conventional ones once they are launched, and hinted that Russia's response to a Tomahawk attack could be nuclear.
Medvedev, who is also deputy head of Russia's security council, added: "How should Russia respond? Exactly!"
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last week that "the Tomahawk topic is extremely worrying," describing any sale as a "very dramatic moment" with "tensions escalating on all sides."
"Just imagine: a long-range missile is launched and is flying, and we know that it could be nuclear," Peskov said.
"What should the Russian Federation think? How should Russia react? Military experts abroad should understand this," he added.
It is difficult to know how serious this threat is, as Russia has made several warnings of nuclear war already.
But Zelensky appeared to recognize this risk of escalation as the main reason for the failure to reach an agreement, telling reporters that he and Trump had talked about long-range missiles but decided not to make statements on the issue "because the United States does not want an escalation."
Asked if he was more optimistic after the meeting that Ukraine would receive the Tomahawks, he said: "I'm a realist."
The entry of the US into the war
After threats from Russia, Trump may also have felt that supplying the Tomahawks would mark too much US involvement in the war.
In a phone call this week, the Kremlin said Putin told Trump that selling Tomahawks to Ukraine would "cause significant damage" to U.S.-Russia relations and disrupt peace talks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier this month that it is not possible to use Tomahawks without the direct participation of US military personnel, leading to a "qualitatively new stage of escalation."
Whether or not he saw this as a serious risk to US security, Trump will be aware that greater US involvement would likely not sit well with his voting base.
Trump won the presidential election with an isolationist approach to foreign policy, cutting international aid and promising to end American involvement in "eternal wars" overseas.
Tony Brenton, the former British ambassador to Russia, said Trump had made it clear that he believed that "Ukraine is not really America's war, it's Europe's war, and while they are willing to be supportive to a certain extent... Europe should bear the main burden of arming Ukraine and providing financial assistance to it."
US supply depletion
A concern for many Ukrainian allies throughout the war has been the surrender of too many things and the weakening of their arsenals.
Ukraine would need a relatively new variant of the Tomahawk missile to be launched from land, because it does not have the ships and submarines from which the missiles are typically launched.
These ground-launched missiles are in relatively short supply and the US military reportedly has only two.
Trump said the US cannot "deplete" its supply of Tomahawks, saying "we need them too, so I don't know what we can do about it." /Adapted from INews/
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