Buoyed by declaration of peace in the Middle East, president turns attention to Russia conflict with Tomahawk missile threat
Donald Trump’s peace deal in Gaza was signed at a summit in EgyptCredit: Yoan Valat/EPA/Shutterstock
13 October 2025 9:20pm BST
Donald Trump is preparing to arm Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles as he turns his attention to ending its war with Russia.
The US president was lavished with praise for bringing peace to the Middle East during a jubilant visit to Israel on Monday.
World leaders used a subsequent summit in Sharm El-Sheikh to back Mr Trump to solve the conflict in Ukraine. The US president will meet Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Friday.
The two leaders are due to discuss their “visions” for how the long-range Tomahawk missile could bring Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table, according to Mr Zelensky.
“The main topics will be air defence and our long-range capabilities, to maintain pressure on Russia,” the Ukrainian leader said.
Mr Trump threatened to deliver the Tomahawks to Kyiv if Putin continued to stifle any hope of peace talks.
He has recently ramped up intelligence-sharing with Ukrainian forces to assist their long-range strikes on Russian energy targets, increasing pressure on Russia’s stuttering economy.
Mr Trump touched down in Tel Aviv on Monday to celebrate the release of 20 Israeli hostages as part of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
After declaring lasting peace, he jetted off to Egypt to meet world leaders for the signing of the first phase of a White House deal to bring an end to the war in Gaza.
In a speech to Israel’s parliament, Mr Trump said he would now focus his efforts on brokering a deal to end the war between Ukraine and Russia.
“It would be great if we could make a peace deal with [Iran]… First, we have to get Russia done,” he told the Knesset. “Let’s focus on Russia first.”
With the war in Gaza over, Mr Trump has claimed to have ended eight conflicts since taking office in the White House in late January.
However, a deal to end the three-and-a-half-year fight between Ukraine and Russia has eluded him and remains problematic. Mr Trump has struggled for leverage in a deal with Putin.
But he extolled the White House policy of “peace through strength” in the Middle East on Monday, leading to renewed hope.
Mr Zelensky said the US president’s Israel-Hamas deal “brings more hope” to other regions suffering from war.
“We are working so that the day of peace comes for Ukraine as well. Russian aggression remains the last global source of destabilisation, and if a ceasefire and peace have been achieved for the Middle East, the leadership and determination of global actors can certainly work for us, too,” the Ukrainian president wrote on social media.
His prime minister and top aide flew to Washington on Monday to begin “high-level talks to strengthen Ukraine’s defence, secure our energy resilience, and intensify sanctions pressure on the aggressor”.
With speculation mounting that Mr Trump could ship Tomahawks to Ukraine, Mr Zelensky is expected to present him with a lengthy list of Russian military targets that could be struck with the missiles.
Kyiv hopes the weapon will be able to disrupt Moscow’s ability to wage war by severing logistical routes and destroying missile and drone factories.
Tomahawks have a range of around 1,500 miles, which would put such targets comfortably within range.
Mr Zelensky has previously claimed the missile would pressure Putin to the negotiating table to discuss a ceasefire.
‘New step of aggression’
The provision of Tomahawks would mark a major escalation in American support and a hardening of Mr Trump’s stance against Putin.
Mr Trump said sending the missile to Kyiv would mark a “new step of aggression”.
His predecessor, Joe Biden, had rebuffed Ukraine’s requests for Tomahawks.
“I might say, look, if this war’s not going to get settled, I’m going to send them Tomahawks,” Mr Trump said on Sunday on his flight to Israel.
“I might have to speak to Russia, to be honest with you, about Tomahawks. Do they want to have Tomahawks going in their direction? I don’t think so.”
Referring to Putin, Mr Trump said: “I might tell him that if the war is not settled, that we may very well do it.”
Since the two leaders’ landmark meeting in Alaska, Mr Trump has become increasingly frustrated with his Russian counterpart for refusing to engage in meaningful negotiations with Kyiv.
Mr Trump’s threat followed phone calls between himself and Mr Zelensky, with the two leaders becoming increasingly aligned from the low point of their public spat at the White House earlier this year.
Moscow has warned the White House against providing Tomahawks, saying the move would effectively sever relations with Washington.
On Sunday, Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said the missiles were of “extreme concern” to Russia, adding: “Tensions are escalating from all sides.”
Moscow would not be able to tell if the missiles were carrying nuclear warheads if they were launched at its territory, he claimed, asking: “Just how should Russia react?”
Putin and his top officials have refrained from directly criticising Mr Trump over the missiles in the hope they can still convince him to back down.
I remain skeptical but if the “deal” has legs, then credit where credit’s due.
The injured party; Israel, is under no existential threat from Hamas and most Arab countries, barring Krasnov’s new friends in Qatar, in any case hate them more than they hate Israel. Even a good number of Palis hate them too.
No Arab countries will take Palis on their soil; again except Qatar, which only wants the rich ones.
If the peace is genuine, another threat emerges : Hamas savages may not have military skills, but they are rapists and torturers like the fucking orcs. It is possible that demobbed Hamas fiends might end up in orc battalions. They would pose a terrible threat to Ukrainian civilians.
Israel has an overwhelming advantage even without the huge US support it gets.
Ukraine on the other hand gets close to zero U.S. support in its struggle against a gigantic horde of cockroaches.
Israel was never in an existential struggle; not since the 1967 war, when ruZZia-armed Egypt, Syria and Jordan ganged up on them.
The existential threat to Ukraine is absolutely real and it is an absolute disgrace that successive leaders from Clinton to Dubya to Obama to Trump to Biden and Trump again have consistently downgraded Ukraine as an ally, despite Budapest, which John Major’s contemporary notes reveal that he thought he was signing a nuclear guarantee.
“It is possible that demobbed Hamas fiends might end up in orc battalions.”
I don’t think that people from the middle-east would do well in a Ukrainian winter…
Comment from :
Clive Richardson
A couple of Tomahawks on Medvedev and Peskov’s heads should concentrate Putin’s twisted mind, I feel sure Zelensky knows where they live.
Andrew James
Just give Ukraine the weaponry and support it needs and give Putin a taste of his own medicine … if we’re lucky he will ‘fall’ out of one of his own windows, closely followed by Lavrov, Medvedev, and a fair few others.
Kremtroll alert :
Ls Bertha
Isreal is always under US control. Their iron dome and defence is pretty much all US. So what Trump says go. Russia is a different ball game. If ukraine are to strike inside Russia they need help from us or west, that simple. Main reason even the atacoms were not used that much. Tomhawks is just news grabber. Problem is if ukraine hits like Moscow and Russia retaliate with small tactical nuke in Ukraine, what will west do. Go in to mutual destruction or let Ukraine be the collateral damage. These are not easy decisions.
Reply from :
David Hollway
Reply to Ls Bertha
Internet Research Agency fielding their ‘D’ team today, I see.
GRAHAM REEVE
Reply to Ls Bertha
Even if the bosses in China gave them permission (which they won’t), there’s plenty of options in between nuclear Armageddon and surrendering to Russian aggression. Other than the obvious legit targets in illegally occupied Ukraine there’s Kaliningrad, Belarus, total west coast blockade, every single Russian military base outside Russia… etc. FAFO. Seriously, how desperate do you think Russia is to choose guaranteed nuclear suicide for anything short of a full scale NATO invasion?
Mark Jones
The best chance for a lasting uneasy peace between Ukraine and the Russian mafia state is for the Russian army to walk back to 2013 borders.
Two methods to achieve this by Christmas 2026.
1. Deep strike on the two Kerch bridges, Russian ports on the Sea of Azov, rail terminals, oil refineries, ammunition and drone factories throughout southern Russia. It really doesn’t matter who supplies the deep strike arms. The US, UK or France. The frozen Russian funds held in Banks in Europe should pay.
2. President Trump should increase pressure on European countries to stop buying Russian oil processed in Asian and Indian refineries into petrol and diesel and other related oil products. Russian LNG similarly sold into Europe again targeted. The 600 ghost ship tankers propping up the Russian economy made obsolete.
Whether the current mafia led Russian administration survives after the long walk home by the Russian army to 2013 borders isn’t really a concern for the USA.
Tom Frieling
Reply to Mark Jones
Sounds good to me, Mark
Make it painful for the average Russian whose social contract with the government is give us a comfortable middle class life and we don’t care what the government does.
Should that compact be broken by Putin’s war in then Putin will be toast.
Zinc Nation
Just do it. It’ll start a skirmish but it’ll be cheaper in the end. My training as a night club bouncer: avoid fights at all cost. But if you HAVE to, one good hard punch to the lower face is best. It’ll do a lot of damage, but nothing like as much as a sustained brawl will.
I never needed to heed the advice.
MAGA kremtoll :
David G Smith
Trump will not escalate this conflict by selling Tomahawks to the EU and UK for donation to Ukraine. These missiles are nuclear capable and there is no way of telling whether any Tomahawk aimed at Russia is not a pre-emptive nuclear strike demanding an immediate response. Trump will not provide them give the global escalatory risk and certainly not on account of Ukraine.
Trevor Smallwood
Reply to David G Smith
Vlad has nuclear capable missiles so there is no reason Ukraine shouldn’t. All that Russian exceptionalism is truly boring.
Trump bringing peace to the war in Ukraine? A lasting and a JUST peace?
I want to believe, but I have no faith.
I’d agree But my larger concern is that President Zelensky could be forced into accepting a land grab deal despite, what I see, Ukraine having momentum and Russia suffering.
I’m also concerned about this.
In the end, what other choice does Ukraine have? As we’ve said ad nauseam and countless times, the West has been too cowardly, too slow, and too reluctant to do what is necessary to do. This is their fault, 100%. They shall reap the results at a later date, I’m sure.
“Moscow has warned the White House against providing Tomahawks”
I guess Moscow thinks they are the only ones to use Cruise missiles in putin’s war on Ukraine. Imagine that……
How would Ukraine escalate by using cruise missiles in a war russia are already using cruise missiles in?…
Everyone are patting Trump on the back as though he solved something. Jordan’s King Abdullah said last week no peace was possible in the Middle East without the emergence of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. Isn’t that the reason this whole war started in the first place?
It could be a start of something although history has shown that..it ain’t gonna happen.
His son in law Jared is the one whom really drew up this 20 point plan, Trump once again has done nothing but take credit for something he didn’t do, and if it all falls apart he will throw others under the bus.