The Pentagon has given the green light to the supply of long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine after an assessment concluded that such a move would not negatively affect US stockpiles. The final decision, however, lies in the hands of US President Donald Trump, according to three US and European officials with knowledge of the matter and cited by CNN in its report.

Trump had stated, during his recent meeting at the White House with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, that he would prefer that the missiles not be given to Ukraine, saying that we don't want to give things that we need to protect our country.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff briefed the White House on its assessment shortly before Trump's meeting with Zelensky, who is pushing for the acquisition of Tomahawks, which have a range of about 1,000 miles, so they can hit oil and energy targets deep inside Russian territory.

The Pentagon's assessment has encouraged the US's European allies, who believe that Washington now has fewer and fewer arguments to refuse to send the missiles, according to two European officials. Trump himself had said a few days before the meeting with the Ukrainian president that the US has many Tomahawks that could be given to Ukraine.

However, to the surprise of American and European officials, the US president changed his stance a few days later, publicly stating at the start of a working lunch with Zelensky that the US needed the Tomahawks. According to the same sources, he then privately told the Ukrainian president that Washington would not deliver them, at least not yet.

This reversal came a day after Trump's phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who, according to CNN, warned him that the Tomahawks could hit major Russian cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg, without, however, substantially changing the balance of power on the battlefield — while causing serious damage to US-Russian relations.

The White House and the Pentagon declined to comment on the information.

CNN sources say Trump has not ruled out sending the missiles, and his administration has already drawn up a plan for rapid delivery if ordered. The president has also reportedly become increasingly frustrated with Putin's reluctance to seriously consider peace talks, leading him to approve new US sanctions on Russian oil companies and cancel – for now – a planned meeting with the Russian president in Budapest.

While the Pentagon has not expressed concerns about the stockpiles, US officials admit that there are still operational difficulties regarding how the Ukrainians will be trained and how they will use the missiles. A key question concerns the method of launch, as Tomahawks are usually launched from ships or submarines but the Ukrainian fleet has suffered serious losses. Therefore, the use of ground-based launchers, equivalent to those developed by the US Armed Forces, is being considered.

Even if the US does not offer the launchers, European officials believe Ukraine could find a solution. A European official recalled that Ukrainian engineers managed to integrate British Storm Shadow missiles – originally designed for modern NATO aircraft – into their older Soviet-made fighters.

In a post on the X platform this week, Zelensky stressed that Ukraine hopes to strengthen its long-range strike capabilities by the end of the year so that the war can end on terms that are fair to the country.

"Global sanctions and our precision strikes are now coordinated to end this war justly for Ukraine," he wrote."All targets must be locked in place by the end of the year, including extending our range to long distances."