'Putin lied to Trump and made him look weak,' former US envoy to Ukraine says

Russian president Vladimir Putin "lied to Donald Trump" about his intentions to put an end to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Trump's former envoy for Ukraine negotiations told Euronews.

And this is why "it's quite possible that the US will send Tomahawks to Ukraine," Kurt Volker said.  

On 19 August, just days after Trump's meeting with Putin in Alaska, the US president hosted Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other EU leaders at the White House.

Following that meeting, Trump said he was going to arrange a meeting between Putin and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Volker says this is what Putin promised Trump in a phone call.

"Trump is frustrated. Putin promised him he would negotiate and meet with Zelenskyy. He [Putin] did it when Trump was with European leaders in the White House . He went and made a phone call to Putin who agreed in that moment," said Volker.

"But Putin lied to him and now Trump is irritated."

Few countries offered to host the historic meeting and even offered not to arrest Vladimir Putin under the International Criminal Court arrest warrant for the abduction of Ukrainian children.

Since then, the Kremlin has repeatedly rejected the possibility of a face-to-face meeting with Zelenskyy with or without the participation of the US president.

"He made Trump look weak and Trump doesn't like looking weak, so this is now a personal issue for him," Volker told Euronews, explaining why the US administration is now considering sending Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine.

Volker also believes that having the discussion about long-range missiles will also "re-engage" Putin and "make him cut a deal and Putin isn't doing that right now."

In addition, Volker believes Trump's linking of business with politics means he is also motivated by selling the long range missiles.

"Trump is transactional; he's all about money and if somebody is paying what does he care," he said.

"If the Russian invasion of Ukraine ends then Trump's priority is that he can lift sanctions [on Russia] and make money."

Opposite narrative in Moscow

Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed in an interview published on 5 October that the US supplying Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles would "lead to the destruction" of the "emerging positive trend" in US-Russian relations.

The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) say this way the Kremlin is trying to deter the US from sending Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine by linking improvements in the bilateral relationship to concessions from the United States.

"ISW continues to assess that Putin has been trying to facilitate US-Russian rapprochement, including by pressuring the Trump administration to engage in arms control talks, to secure Russia’s desired demands in Ukraine," Volker said.

Putin also threatened the US on 2 October, claiming that American military personnel would have to directly participate in Ukrainian Tomahawk strikes.

Putin claimed that that would mark a "new stage of escalation" but would not change the battlefield situation.  

The ISW points out that Putin made similar arguments when the United States was considering sending Ukraine ATACMS missiles, F-16 jets and Abrams tanks.

"Putin appears to be trying different approaches – from threatening worsening bilateral relations to downplaying the missiles' usefulness – to influence US decision-making."

Why Ukraine wants Tomahawks

Tomahawk missiles have been on Kyiv's battlefield wishlist for some time. With an operational range between 1,600 and 2,500 kilometres and a powerful warhead of around 400-450 kilograms, they could reinforce Ukraine's strikes deep into Russia.

At present, Ukraine relies on Western-supplied missiles, such as the Storm Shadow, which are limited in range to around 250 kilometres.

For anything further than this, Kyiv is utilising its domestically produced drones and drone-like missiles, such as the Palianytsia, but their warhead payload is limited to 50-100 kilograms.

This is why Kyiv believes that Tomahawk missiles could fully transform Ukraine's deep strike strategy.

Over the past months, Ukraine has significantly intensified strikes against Russia's energy infrastructure.

According to Kremlin-affiliated media, around 40% of Russia's oil refining capacity for petrol and diesel fuel had been halted by the end of September due to Ukrainian drone attacks.

Ukrainian strikes have targeted at least 16 of Russia's 38 oil refineries since August 2025, causing a domestic fuel shortage across Russia, according to FT reported.