Moscow — Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that the United States would destroy its relationship with Moscow if it decides to supply Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles capable of striking deep into Russian territory.
“This will lead to the destruction of our relations, or at least the positive trends that have emerged in these relations,” Putin said in a video message released on Sunday.
The warning follows remarks by U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who said last month that Washington was considering Kyiv’s request for Tomahawk cruise missiles. The missiles, which have a range of about 2,500 kilometres (1,550 miles), would put Moscow and much of European Russia within reach.
Putin insisted that such weapons could not be used without direct U.S. involvement, calling their potential delivery a “qualitatively new stage of escalation.”
“It is impossible to use Tomahawks without the direct participation of American military personnel,” he said.
Escalation on the Battlefield
Putin’s comments came as Russian forces continued large-scale strikes across Ukraine over the weekend. Ukrainian officials reported at least five civilian deaths after Russia launched a wave of drones, missiles, and guided bombs overnight into Sunday.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said more than 50 ballistic missiles and around 500 drones had been fired across nine regions in one of the heaviest bombardments in weeks.
In the western city of Lviv, a region often seen as a refuge from the front lines, four people were killed when a combined drone and missile attack hit parts of the city. Several others were injured, and power outages left two districts in the dark for hours, according to mayor Andriy Sadovyi. Fires also broke out at a business complex on the city’s outskirts.
In Zaporizhzhia, a nighttime airstrike killed one woman and wounded nine others, including a teenage girl, regional governor Ivan Fedorov reported. Ukraine’s energy ministry said infrastructure in Zaporizhzhia, Chernihiv, and Sumy was damaged, causing widespread emergency outages.
