A submarine-launched Tomahawk Missile flying towards a target during a training exercise
According to recent reporting from Politico and Axios, Donald Trump has walked back his decision to supply Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles following a phone call with Vladimir Putin. This development, along with a plan for a potential US-Russia summit in Budapest (which has since been scuttled), was made public in the aftermath of a bilateral meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy last Friday. During this meeting Trump and Witkoff reportedly pressured Zelenskyy to surrender the remainder of Donetsk Oblast in exchange for small sections of Russian-occupied territory in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson and a potential ceasefire. After Zelenskyy rejected this proposal, Trump dropped the demands for territorial concessions and agreed that the conflict may be frozen along the current line of contact. Days later a communique from Moscow again reiterated Russia’s maximalist demands with regards to territory in Ukraine and Ukrainian NATO membership.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Why It Matters to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.