The president of the United States, Donald Trump, denied on Tuesday press reports that claim Washington has budgeted the shipment of long-range missiles in the arms package it hopes to deliver to the Ukrainian authorities, who have been defending themselves against large-scale aggression since February 2022 launched by the Moscow regime.

According to the Financial Times, Trump recently spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about providing US missiles to attack Moscow, including Tomahawk and ATACMS. Asked about this at the White House, Trump replied, "No, we're not looking to do that." He was also asked if Kyiv should attack Moscow, to which the Republican replied, "No."

However, on Monday, Trump had announced an agreement to send weapons to Ukraine, including the Patriot anti-missile batteries requested by the Ukrainian leader, the cost of which will be borne by European allies, not the United States. On the occasion, Trump indicated that the agreement "includes missiles and ammunition," suggesting that it could be offensive weapons, not exclusively defensive.

Russia asks for "time"

During the election campaign, Trump promised to end the war quickly and stop the flow of billions of dollars in US weapons to Ukraine. Under pressure, Moscow and Kyiv opened negotiations on the conflict that began more than three years ago, but the only concrete result has been the exchange of prisoners of war. On Monday, the US president said that if an agreement was not reached in the next 50 days, he would impose tough tariffs on Russian trading partners. Russia, which has rejected calls for a cease-fire and launched a record number of drones and missiles at Ukraine in recent months without making any significant gains on the ground, responded Tuesday by saying it needed more time to respond to Trump. "President Trump's statement is very serious. We certainly need time to analyze what was said in Washington," said regime spokesperson Dmitri Peskov.