President Donald Trump has asked Volodymyr Zelensky whether he could strike Moscow if the U.S. provided long-range weapons, according to reports.
‘Volodymyr, can you hit Moscow? . . . Can you hit St Petersburg too?’ Trump asked during the July 4 call between the US and Ukrainian leaders, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing people briefed on the discussions.
They said Zelensky replied: ‘Absolutely. We can if you give us the weapons.’
Trump signalled his support for the idea, describing the strategy as intended to ‘make them [Russians] feel the pain’ and force the Kremlin to the negotiating table, according to the two people briefed on the call.
The conversation marks a sharp departure from Trump’s previous stance on Russia’s war and his campaign promise to end US involvement in foreign conflicts.
The White House did not immediately respond to a MailOnline request for comment.
A western official, who had been informed of the call, said the conversation reflected an increasing desire among Ukraine’s western allies to supply weapons capable of ‘bringing the war to Muscovites’.
Trump was today warned by Moscow that he is pushing Russia towards nuclear war with his new go-ahead for arms to Ukraine and the threat of punitive sanctions.
It comes after the US president announced he will send Patriot air defense missiles to Ukraine and will slap 100 percent tariffs on Russia if Putin doesn’t agree to a peace deal within 50 days.
State TV propagandist and war pundit Aleksandr Sladkov said: ‘Trump is trying to scare us with missiles, but this is difficult to do.
‘Trump should be scared. Everyone is trying to push us to turn Kyiv and Lviv into Hiroshima and Nagasaki.’
The Ukrainian leadership – in calling for new missiles to strike Russia – ‘is taking the most active part in this’.
The new Trump deal green lights the supply of a possible $10 billion worth of defensive and offensive missiles and other arms, to be paid for by US allies in Europe along with Canada, as well as the threat of sledgehammer sanctions if Putin refuses to negotiate in 50 days.
Sladkov declared: ‘Imagine our country under attack by American cruise missiles, like Yugoslavia, Iraq, etc. I am sure that the Yars should go in response.’
Yars are Russia’s main land-based strategic nuclear weapons – each missile typically carries three or four nuclear warheads.
Each has a yield estimated between 100 and 300 kilotons, making each warhead between seven and 20 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Frothing Putin TV propagandist Vladimir Solovyov claimed the arming of Ukraine by NATO meant a full scale war.
‘The question is about the survival of our country,’ he fumed on Kremlin-funded state TV. ‘We are already at war. It cannot be avoided.
‘The [Western] task is to destroy our country. We are not fighting in Ukraine, we are fighting with NATO. Understand this already.’
This came as it was claimed the US president had quizzed Volodymyr Zelensky on why he did not heap pressure on Vladimir Putin by attacking capital city Moscow, a disclosure likely to further infuriate Moscow.
‘We can if you give us the weapons,’ Zelensky replied, according to the Washington Post.
It has emerged the US considered approving long range Tomahawk cruise missiles for Kyiv, but for now has not done so, but evidently has approved using American-supplied ATACMS missiles inside Russia to a fuller range of almost 200 miles.
On Monday Trump said the U.S. will slap 100 percent tariffs on Russia if Putin doesn’t agree to a peace deal with Ukraine within 50 days.
The president tore into Putin while meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office as his anger at the Russian dictator boiled over amid its escalating attacks on Ukraine.
Trump said he’ll be imposing ‘very very powerful’ secondary tariffs on Russia in 50 days if a deal to end the war isn’t reached.
‘We are very, very unhappy with [Russia], and we’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days, tariffs at about 100 percent,’ he said in the Oval Office.
‘I’m disappointed in President Putin. I thought we would’ve had a deal two months ago,’ he went on about the proposed peace deal.
Trump also struck a deal with NATO to send sophisticated weaponry, including Patriot missiles, to Ukraine. He insisted that the U.S. will not be footing the bill after being taken advantage of for so long.
‘We’ve made a deal today where we are going to be sending [Ukraine] weapons and [Europe] is going to be paying for them,’ he stated.
‘We – the United States – will not be having any payment made. We’re not buying it, but we will manufacture it, and they’re going to be paying for it.’
This is a breaking news story, more to follow.
