Hegseth tells NATO Ukraine ‘firepower’ is coming amid Tomahawk missiles speculation
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth promised Wednesday that Ukraine would benefit from “firepower” as Washington could provide kyiv with long-range Tomahawk missiles to pressure Russia into ending the war.
Speaking before a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, Hegseth said alliance members have strengthened their commitments to Ukraine and those commitments “will soon translate into capabilities,” thanks in part to an initiative where NATO countries are buying U.S. weapons and supplying them to kyiv.
President Donald Trump has considered giving Ukraine US-made Tomahawk missiles, which could be used to strike deep into Russia – which the Kremlin said would signal a “qualitatively new stage of escalation”.
It was unclear whether the Tomahawks were part of the “firepower” Hegseth promised Wednesday.
The Kremlin has warned that Western weapons risk widening the war.
He has presented the eastward expansion of NATO, a military alliance founded after World War II to counter the then-Soviet Union, as one reason for what he calls his “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Trump’s strategy of “peace through strength” to resolve conflicts has worked, Hegseth said, referring to the president’s mediation of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
He said peace comes “not when you use strong words or wag your finger,” but “when you have strong, real capabilities that adversaries respect.”
Trump will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday, where Tomahawk missiles will likely be discussed.
In line with Kremlin rhetoric, Trump said earlier this week that supplying long-range missiles to kyiv could constitute “a new stage of aggression.” But he also said he could tell Russia: “If this war is not resolved, I will send [Ukraine] Tomahawks.
Earlier this month, the president said he wanted to know what Ukraine planned to do with the missiles before agreeing to supply them.
Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has not approved or proposed any major new weapons programs for Ukraine and has yet to follow through on his threats to impose new sanctions on Russia.
While running for president, Trump promised to resolve the war within 24 hours, but has since acknowledged that had proven to be a much more difficult task, turning his attention to other conflicts after months of negotiations with Putin that achieved little.
After initially blaming the war on Ukraine and suggesting that kyiv should cede territory, he has since changed his position and said Ukraine could reclaim all of its occupied lands from Russia. In more than three and a half years of fighting, kyiv, supported by its Western allies, has managed to recover swathes of its territory through successful counter-offensive campaigns, but Russia still occupies around a fifth of Ukrainian territory.
Building on his advances in the Middle East this week, Trump now appears to have his sights firmly set on resolving the war in Ukraine.
“Let’s focus on Russia first,” Trump said, touching on other conflicts that his special envoy Steve Witkoff may address next in a triumphant speech to the Israeli parliament on Monday. Witkoff has already traveled to Moscow for talks with Putin.
