WASHINGTON/KYIV/MOSCOW - US Vice-President JD Vance said Sunday that the White House is considering a plan for European NATO allies to purchase US-made Tomahawk cruise missiles and transfer them to Ukraine, but the final call rests with President Donald Trump.
"I know that we're having conversations this very minute about that issue," Vance said on Fox News.
"We're looking at it," he said. "We're certainly looking at a number of requests from the Europeans."
When asked whether he was personally comfortable with Ukraine receiving Tomahawk missiles and "the threat that that would pose," Vance started sidestepping the question, saying that Trump will make the "final determination...on what's in the best interest of the United States of America."
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According to US media outlets, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proposed the deal during his meeting with Trump on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York last week. And he said Trump told him, "We'll work on it."
Vance stressed that the Trump administration adopted a broader policy shift that presses Europe to take on more of the burden. "We're no longer just giving tons of money and weapons. What we're doing is asking the Europeans to buy that weaponry."
He called on Russia to "come to the table and actually talk seriously about peace."
Tomahawk is a US-made, long-range, subsonic land-attack cruise missile with an operational range of 460-2,500 km, depending on the variant. This range could enable strikes on areas near Moscow if the missiles were deployed from parts of Europe.
Meanwhile, at least four people were killed and 40 others injured in a massive Russian drone and missile attack on Ukraine that lasted more than 12 hours, Zelensky said Sunday.
The assault involved nearly 500 combat drones and over 40 missiles, including Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, Zelensky said in a statement.
The main targets included Kyiv and its surrounding areas, the southern Zaporizhzhia region and the western Khmelnytsky region. Civilian infrastructure facilities were heavily affected across Ukraine, with strikes damaging a bread production enterprise, an automotive rubber factory and residential buildings, Zelensky added.
Tymur Tkachenko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said three adults and a 12-year-old girl were killed in Kyiv, and about 10 people were injured. More than 15 locations were damaged in the capital, including a cardiological institute, a kindergarten and residential buildings.
In Moscow, the Russian Ministry of Defense said that its air defense systems intercepted and destroyed 53 Ukrainian drones in multiple regions overnight and Sunday morning.
The ministry also reported that its forces shot down six guided aerial bombs, six US-made HIMARS multiple launch rocket system projectiles and one Czech-made Vampire rocket on Saturday.
