Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks throughout an annual plenary session of the Valdai Dialogue Membership, on October 2, 2025 in Sochi, Russia.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the potential provide of long-range missiles to Ukraine would mark a “utterly new stage of escalation” between Washington and Moscow.
Talking on Thursday at a discussion board in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi, Putin conceded that the availability of “highly effective” U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles to Kyiv posed a menace to Russia however wouldn’t change the scenario on the battlefield.
“Can Tomahawks hurt us? They’ll. However we’ll shoot them down and enhance our air protection system,” Putin stated, in keeping with an NBC translation.
“Utilizing Tomahawks with out the direct participation of American navy personnel is not possible. This is able to mark a qualitatively new, utterly new stage of escalation between Russia and the U.S.,” he added.
His feedback come shortly after it was reported the U.S. would offer Ukraine with intelligence on long-range vitality infrastructure targets deep inside Russia, a transfer that may symbolize a major shift in White Home assist for Kyiv.
The Wall Avenue Journal and Reuters, citing unnamed U.S. officers, each reported on Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s administration had accepted intelligence sharing with Ukraine, whereas weighing up whether or not to ship Tomahawk cruise missiles to Kyiv.
CNBC has contacted the White Home for remark.
The provision of Tomahawk cruise missiles, that are identified to have a spread of at the least 1,500 miles (roughly 2,400 kilometers), would considerably enhance Ukraine’s capability to strike Russian targets.
Putin responds to ‘paper tiger’ criticism
Requested about Trump’s current characterization of Russia as a “paper tiger,” Putin stated Russian troops “confidently” held the strategic initiative and had been making positive aspects in Ukraine.
“But when we’re preventing all the NATO bloc and we’re shifting ahead, feeling assured, and it is a paper tiger. What then of NATO itself? What does it symbolize?” Putin stated.
A paper tiger is a time period that usually refers to a drive that seems highly effective however is ineffective.
The U.S. president, in a serious rhetorical shift, additionally stated final month that Ukraine might retake territory captured by Russia.
Rescuers clear particles on the web site of a Russian strike on a residential district on September 28, 2025 in Kyiv, Ukraine.
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In a social media submit revealed Sept. 23, Trump stated his view got here after “attending to know and absolutely perceive” Russia and Ukraine’s navy and financial scenario, noting what he described because the “financial bother” that the battle is inflicting in Moscow.
The U.S. president has beforehand steered Ukraine would have to be open to giving up a few of its territory in peace talks, which Washington has taken steps to dealer for the reason that begin of Trump’s second mandate.
Russia, in the meantime, is poised to hike taxes on enterprise and shoppers as the federal government appears for methods to assist its war-focused economic system after greater than three-and-half years of battle.
Airspace incursions
European Union political leaders on Wednesday backed plans for a so-called drone wall on the area’s japanese flank, looking for to bolster its defenses and repel Russia following a sequence of airspace incursions in current weeks.
Protection giants have welcomed the idea, though the European Fee, the EU’s govt arm, has not but produced a plan on learn how to finance and function the challenge.
Putin on Thursday stated the Kremlin is “carefully monitoring” what he described because the “rising militarization of Europe. Is it simply empty speak, or is it time for us to take countermeasures?”
European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen speaks with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy through the European Political Neighborhood summit, on October 2, 2025 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
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Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Romania — EU and NATO members on Europe’s northern and japanese flank near Russia — have all just lately reported airspace incursions allegedly involving Russian jets or drones.
Germnany, Denmark and Norway, in the meantime, have additionally reported unidentified drones of their airspace in current days, with the incidents resulting in vital disruption to airports and air site visitors.
Russia has beforehand denied it is behind the drone provocations in opposition to its European neighbors, describing them as “unfounded accusations.”
— CNBC’s Holly Ellyatt contributed to this report.
