Donald Trump asked Volodymyr Zelenskyy if Ukraine was capable of striking Moscow, as he encouraged more long-range strikes inside Russia, Report informs, citing the Financial Times (FT).
The US president told his Ukrainian counterpart that he wanted Ukraine to “make them [Russians] feel the pain” and force Putin to the negotiation table, sources told FT.
“Volodymyr, can you hit Moscow?... Can you hit St Petersburg too?” the US president reportedly asked on the July 4 call.
The Ukrainian president replied: “Absolutely. We can if you give us the weapons.”
Following the call, Kyiv received a list from US aides of long-range strike systems that could be made available via third-party transfers.
Despite Trump’s shifting stance, the US reportedly remains reluctant to give Ukraine Tomahawk missiles, precision strike cruise missiles that can hit targets 1,600km away.
His proposal to arm Ukraine was unveiled on Monday, when he announced plans to sell billions of dollars of weapons to Ukraine via members of the NATO alliance, including the UK, France and Germany.
Speaking to the BBC this morning, Trump said he was “disappointed but not done with Putin”.