Massive Russian strikes aimed to disable Ukraine’s energy grid at the weekend. With winter looming, the attacks add urgency to talks about military aid.
But the Tomahawk’s 1,600-mile range and ability to carry nuclear warheads are complicating factors. It puts the Russian capital Moscow in reach and Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has warned Mr Trump that they could destroy any remaining relationship with Washington.
Against that backdrop, Yehor Cherniev, the deputy chairman of the Ukrainian parliament’s national security, defence and intelligence committee, set out just how the weapons might be used.
He envisages a series of possibilities or stages, from Mr Trump changing his mind and not supplying them at all, or Mr Trump allowing their export but not permitting their use, to allowing an escalating scale of ranges and targets.
“At each of these stages, Putin is given the opportunity to retreat and go to negotiations. And therefore, the supply and use of missiles will most likely be very gradual,” he wrote.
“First they will give us rockets, but a few pieces, or a couple of dozen, but they will not allow us to shoot them at once and we will see the Kremlin’s reaction.”
