By: The Editorial Board – wsj.com – October 17, 2025

Long-range cruise missiles could be a force for peace by altering Vladimir Putin’s capacity to carry on his grinding war.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to get the war over without thinking about Tomahawks,” Mr. Trump said during a meeting at the White House with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. Ukraine’s supporters had hoped for Mr. Trump’s approval to obtain the missiles, which have a range of more than 1,000 miles. But another call with Mr. Putin this week appears to have stayed that decision.

Mr. Trump’s reluctance seems to involve two concerns, and the first is escalation with a nuclear power. But Mr. Putin has been lobbing cruise and ballistic missiles at Ukraine for years, and there’s nothing escalatory about return fire. Tomahawks could be a force for peace by altering Mr. Putin’s capacity to carry on his grinding war.

The long-range missiles would let Ukraine do better than simply swatting down hundreds of incoming drones. Instead it could take out Russia’s Shahed drone factory. Mr. Putin has tried to use nuclear blackmail for three years to talk the U.S. out of donating this or that weapon. The empirical record is that it’s bluster.

The other concern is U.S. weapons inventories. “I have an obligation also, though, to make sure that we’re completely stocked up as a country,” Mr. Trump said, and that’s his duty as Commander in Chief. U.S. stocks aren’t as healthy as they should be after years of political neglect on defense budgets. Mackenzie Eaglen of the American Enterprise Institutenoted in our pages recently that the U.S. Navy fired more Tomahawk missiles in January 2024 than it bought the previous year.

The U.S. is overdue for a serious rebuild of its defenses, and we’re ready to support Mr. Trump when he decides to spend political capital to make it happen. But hoarding cruise missiles for another war that may or may not come invites more conflict.

While Ukraine is fighting Russian troops, Mr. Putin’s enabler and guarantor is China, whether via oil purchases or chips for military equipment. The U.S. won’t scare China with Tomahawk inventories if America looks afraid to defend its interests in Europe.

Mr. Trump has said repeatedly he wants to end the war, and no doubt he means it. But Mr. Putin so far hasn’t shown any willingness to stop shooting. The President mused on social media this summer that Ukraine needed to go on offense and not be stuck in the Joe Biden policy of playing defense. That’s what Tomahawks can help Ukraine do, and that’s what will bring a faster peace.

To see this article in its entirety and to subscribe to others like it, please choose to read more.

Source: Give Ukraine the Tomahawks, Mr. President – WSJ