MOSCOW: Russia will shoot down Tomahawk cruise missiles and bomb their launch sites if the United States decides to supply them to Ukraine and find a way to retaliate against Washington that hurts, a senior Russian lawmaker said on Wednesday.
US President Donald Trump said on Monday he would want to know what Ukraine planned to do with Tomahawks before agreeing to provide them because he did not want to escalate the war between Russia and Ukraine. He said, however, that he had “sort of made a decision” on the matter.
“Our response will be tough, ambiguous, measured, and asymmetrical. We will find ways to hurt those who cause us trouble,” Andrei Kartapolov, head of the Russian parliament’s defense committee, told the state RIA news agency.
Kartapolov, a former deputy defense minister, said he did not think Tomahawks would change anything on the battlefield even if they were supplied to Ukraine as he said they could only be given in small numbers — in tens rather than hundreds.
“We know these missiles very well, how they fly, how to shoot them down; we worked with them in Syria, so there is nothing new. The only problems will be for those who supply them and those who use them; that’s where the problems will be,” he said.
Kartapolov was also cited as saying that Moscow had so far seen no signs that Ukraine was preparing launch sites for Tomahawks, something he said Kyiv would not be able to hide if it got such missiles. If and when that happened, he said Russia would use drones and missiles to destroy any launchers.
Separately, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov
urged Washington
to assess the situation around the potential supply of Tomahawks “soberly.” He said any such decision would be a serious escalatory step that would bring about a “qualitative” change in the situation.
Russia will destroy Tomahawk missiles and their launchers if US gives them to Ukraine, senior lawmaker says
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Russia will destroy Tomahawk missiles and their launchers if US gives them to Ukraine, senior lawmaker says
- “Our response will be tough, ambiguous, measured, and asymmetrical,” Kartapolov said
- Kartapolov said he did not think Tomahawks would change anything on the battlefield
France, Germany, Spain to resume delayed fighter talks, sources say
- A ministerial meeting is planned for the week of November 24
BERLIN/PARIS: France, Germany and Spain are set to resume high-level talks on the next phase of a major fighter project after delays caused by the recent political crisis in France, three people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
A ministerial meeting is planned for the week of November 24 as the three nations try to bridge differences over the next phase of the Future Combat Air System, which calls for a flying demonstrator model, two of the people said.
A third source said a meeting was planned but that its date had not yet been announced.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius is separately due to meet his French counterpart, Catherine Vautrin, in Paris next Monday, two of the sources said.
No comment was immediately available from the three defense ministries involved in the 100-billion-euro project to develop a system of crewed stealth fighters and packs of armed drones.
Pistorius told reporters last week that no new date for a trilateral ministerial meeting had been set, but he reiterated Germany’s call for a decision on the next phase by end-year.
Berlin has blamed French industry for blocking the program’s next phase by demanding sole leadership of the project, in a coded reference to Dassault Aviation.
Dassault, which handles France’s industrial participation in the project while Airbus represents Germany and Spain, has denied reports that it wants to control 80 percent of the project.
Pistorius said last week that he had discussed the topic with France’s Vautrin, who had stated her intention to continue with the project, which is widely known as FCAS, or its French acronym, SCAF.
Speaking ahead of a recent meeting with Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles, Vautrin said there was urgency to move ahead because France’s current Rafale warplanes would need to be replaced by 2040.
