Putin’s message comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has taken a more hostile stance against Russia in recent weeks after a summer of courtship that saw the U.S. roll out the red carpet for Putin during the Alaskan Summit in August.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an Oct. 5 interview that the “positive” trend in relations between Russia and the U.S. would be destroyed if Washington sent Tomahawk long-range missiles to Ukraine.

“The supply of long-range missile systems, including Tomahawks, to Ukraine will lead to the destruction of the emerging positive trends in relations between Russia and the United States,” Putin told Russian TV propagandist Pavel Zarubin, as cited by the Russian news agency RBC. U.S. Vice President JD Vance confirmed on Sept. 28 that the U.S. was “looking at” providing Kyiv with Tomahawk missiles, which have an operational range between 1,600 and 2,500 kilometers.

This would be a significant boost for Ukraine’s arsenal, which largely relies on drones for long-range strikes, and allow Kyiv to deliver power blows deep into Russian territory.

Putin’s message comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has taken a more hostile stance against Russia in recent weeks after a summer of courtship that saw the U.S. roll out the red carpet for Putin during the Alaska summit in August. The U.S. leader even called Russia a “paper tiger” on Sept. 25 for failing to make territorial gains recently despite relentless attacks and spending vast resources.

Putin responded to Trump on Oct. 2 by also calling NATO a “paper tiger”, signaling that relations between Washington and Moscow have taken a downward turn. He also said then that a delivery of Tomahawks would mark a “new stage of escalation, including in relations between Russia and the U.S.”

Putin added that Russian air defense would adapt to Tomahawk attacks and the long-range missiles wouldn’t influence the "balance of force on the battlefield.” Ukraine is currently reliant on Western-supplied cruise missiles that only have a range of around 250 kilometers.

Ukraine does have its own domestically-produced cruise missile, the Flamingo, with a claimed range of 3,000 km. However, its serial production is not expected to begin until next year, and it is not currently available in significant numbers.

Russia has a vast advantage over Ukraine when it comes to missiles, and regularly uses its own cruise missile systems, such as Kalibr, to strike Ukrainian cities, as well as ballistic systems such as Iskander.

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