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Moscow made a desperate threat Wednesday that it would shoot down all Tomahawk cruise missiles and destroy their launch sites if the US commits to supplying the powerful, long-range weapons to Ukraine that could obliterate Russian oil refineries and military bases.
Andrei Kartapolov, head of the Russian parliament’s defense committee, feverishly advised President Trump to keep the missiles — that have far more range than any others sent so far by Western allies — out of Ukraine.
“Our response will be tough, ambiguous, measured, and asymmetrical,” Kartapolov told the state RIA news agency. “We will find ways to hurt those who cause us trouble.”
Kartapolov also claimed that the Tomahawks, which experts say have the power and range to decimate military and oil facilities deep inside Russia, will do little to change the tide of the war.
“We know these missiles very well, how they fly, how to shoot them down; we worked with them in Syria, so there is nothing new,” the lawmaker said.
“The only problems will be for those who supply them and those who use them; that’s where the problems will be,” Kartapolov added, offering a direct threat to the US.
Moscow’s frantic threat comes as Trump signaled on Monday that he was actively considering Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s request for the long-range cruise missiles.
A senior congressional aide previously told The Post that “sending even a single Tomahawk to Ukraine would scare the s–t out of the Russians more than almost anything else we could do.”
Trump, however, said he needed to know what Ukraine would do with the missiles before greenlighting the shipment, with the president concerned that it could lead to an escalation in the war.
The US is currently only set to provide intelligence to Ukraine that would allow for strikes deep within Russia, so long as those attacks are limited to Moscow’s energy sector.
Analysts and experts studying the war have told The Post that Ukraine will likely push for the Tomahawks to be used against Russia’s oil refineries, weapon depots, and soldier transportation sites.
With Post wires
