President Donald Trump's suggestion that the United States could send Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine has rattled Moscow and increased pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor told Newsmax on Saturday.
Speaking on Newsmax's "The Count," Taylor said Putin "panicked" after Trump raised the possibility of supplying the long-range weapons, which can strike targets more than 1,500 miles away.
"When President Trump last week was talking about the possibility of allowing these Tomahawk weapons to go to Ukraine, President Putin panicked," Taylor said.
And on the phone call last Thursday, Taylor said, Putin "convinced President Trump to think carefully about those Tomahawks."
Still, Trump has the missiles on the table and he can still threaten to send them to Ukraine, which will put more pressure on Putin to end the war, Taylor said.
"That's what President Trump said he wants to do, and that's what he can do with these Tomahawks," he added.
Trump's approach could combine diplomatic and military leverage to push Moscow toward negotiations, said Taylor, noting that even the threat of U.S. missile deliveries has become a tool of influence.
Trump signaled to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday that he's leaning against selling the long-range Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv, but he offered optimism that the war is coming to an end that would mitigate the need for them.
Zelenskyy, at the start of the White House talks, said he had a "proposition" in which Ukraine could provide the United States with its advanced drones, with Washington selling Kyiv the long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles that Ukrainian officials say they desperately need to motivate Putin to get serious about peace talks.
"If [Putin] does show up [for a planned summit], that could be an indication that the pressure on him has been successful," Taylor said, noting that the Tomahawk issue is only one part of a broader strategy.
The ambassador pointed to additional measures backed in Congress to tighten economic pressure on Russia, including sanctions targeting nations that continue to buy Russian oil.
"The Senate has got 85 co-sponsors, bipartisan support, strong bipartisan support to put real sanctions on nations that buy Russian oil," he said.
"And then there are $300 billion worth of Russian central bank money in Western banks that can be taken, that can be given to Ukrainians to allow them to keep going for three years," he said, insisting that the combined steps would make it clear to Putin that "he can't wait us out."
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