The Pentagon has authorised the White House to supply Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk missiles after determining that doing so would not hurt US stockpiles, according to three US and European officials familiar with the situation.

President Donald Trump will make the ultimate political decision.

Trump stated earlier this month that he would prefer not to provide Ukraine the missiles because “we don’t want to be giving away stuff that we need to protect our country” during a working lunch with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.

Just before Trump met with Zelensky, who has been advocating for the missiles to more precisely target energy and oil, the Joint Staff shared their evaluation with the White House earlier this month.

Therefore, when Trump abruptly reversed his position days later and said that the US “needs” the Tomahawks in his opening remarks at a White House working lunch with Zelensky, US and European officials were taken aback.

In private, he then informed Zelensky that the United States would not be supplying them, at least not quite yet.

Trump’s decision was made a day after he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the phone.

According to CNN, Putin informed Trump that while Tomahawks may strike large Russian cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg, they would not significantly affect the battlefield and would harm the US-Russian relationship.

Requests for comment were not answered by the Pentagon or the White House.

According to individuals who previously spoke to CNN, Trump has not completely ruled out the possibility of using missiles.

According to authorities, US defence officials are still debating how Ukraine would train on and use the missiles, even though the Pentagon is not worried about stocks.

The sources noted that in order for Ukraine to effectively employ the missiles, several operational problems would still need to be fixed.

How Ukraine would fire the missiles if the US supplied them is one unanswered question. The missiles would probably need to be launched on land because Ukraine’s Navy is severely decimated.

Tomahawks are typically launched from surface ships or submarines. Ukraine may receive ground-based launchers produced by the Army and Marine Corps.

However, European diplomats think Ukraine could find a way around the launchers even if the US did not wish to supply them.

The UK-provided Storm Shadow missiles, which were initially intended for use by contemporary NATO aircraft and had to be incorporated into Ukraine’s elderly, Soviet-era fighter jet arsenal, were able to be utilised by Ukrainian engineers as a workaround, according to one official.

Zelensky stated earlier this week in a post on X that Ukraine wants to increase its long-range capabilities by the end of this year in order to conclude the war “on fair terms” for the nation.

He stated, “International sanctions and our precision are practically coordinating to finish this war on fair terms for Ukraine.” By the end of the year, all deep-strike objectives, including enlarging our long-range footprint, must be finalised.