President Donald Trump is weighing sending long-range weapons to Ukraine to threaten Moscow as a deterrent to "killing" and not an escalation of war, according to White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday.
While dismissing reports of Trump asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the ability to strike Moscow as "taking words wildly out of context," Leavitt provided context without details by saying Trump is "working tirelessly to stop the killing and end this war" so any conversations about long-range missiles to give Ukraine the ability to strike Moscow is "not encouraging further killing" but an attempt at deterring it.
The Leavitt statements were first reported by NBC News.
The context was provided amid reports of a July 4 call between Zelenskyy and Trump that featured a question and answer on whether Ukraine has long-range missiles to threaten strikes on Moscow.
Trump had long claimed on the campaign trail he could end the Russian war on Ukraine with a phone call, which he now calls hyperbole. Trump has since stated publicly he is frustrated with Russian President Vladimir Putin's dismissal of peace diplomacy.
That comes after years of Trump claiming that threats to bomb Moscow would be a way to move Putin off his own aggressions in Ukraine.
There was a signal from Moscow that the threats are potentially a way to bring Putin and Russia to the table.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Tuesday that Moscow is ready to negotiate after Trump threatened sanctions on buyers of Russian exports, but he said Russia did not warm to ultimatums.
Information from Reuters was used to compile this report.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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