Kremlin Warns of “Dramatic Escalation” as U.S. Weighs Tomahawk Support for Ukraine
Moscow, Oct 12 — The Kremlin delivered a sharp warning Sunday, claiming that sending Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine could push the war into a new and ominous phase. The tense message arrived amid fresh reporting that U.S. intelligence has already been helping Ukraine target Russian energy infrastructure, deep inside Russian territory.
In televised remarks, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia views the potential missile transfer as “a very dramatic moment” in the conflict. He stressed that Moscow would have to reevaluate its posture if Tomahawks — with their long-range capacity — were deployed against its territory. “Now is really a very dramatic moment in terms of the fact that tensions are escalating from all sides,” Peskov said.
The Tomahawk missile, with a range of 2,500 km (1,550 miles), would give Kyiv the ability to strike deep inside Russia, potentially including Moscow. Some variants of the missile have the capacity to carry nuclear warheads, although those are largely relegated to older models. Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that any supply of such missiles would mark a “qualitatively new stage of escalation.”
On the U.S. side, President Donald Trump has said he’s open to providing Tomahawks — but only after asking Ukraine how they plan to use them. He emphasized that he does not want the move to appear as outright escalation. “I would want to know what Ukraine plans to do with them,” Trump said, while also noting he had “sort of made a decision” behind the scenes.
These developments come on the heels of a new Financial Times report stating that U.S. intelligence has been assisting Ukraine for months in planning and executing long-range strikes on Russian energy sites. The support reportedly includes details such as route planning, timing and altitude to help Ukrainian drones penetrate Russian air defenses. The White House and Ukrainian government declined immediate comment on the report, and no immediate response came from Moscow either.
Analysts say this marks a shift in American involvement: rather than merely supplying weapons, Washington appears to be more directly shaping offensive operations. That raises the stakes not just for battlefield dynamics but for the diplomatic front as well.
In Kyiv, Ukrainian leaders have cast the intelligence support as essential to degrading Russia’s ability to finance its war through energy exports. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a recent call with Trump that they discussed ongoing attacks on Ukraine’s own energy system and noted the talks were “positive and productive.”
From Moscow’s perspective, that is proof of Western complicity in targeting Russia’s backbone industries. Peskov framed the intelligence sharing as a clear sign of escalating confrontation. “The supply and use of the entire infrastructure of NATO and the United States to collect and transfer intelligence to Ukrainians is obvious,” he said.
People across Ukraine are already living with the smell of war in the air: power cuts, blackouts, attacks on regional energy plants. Deepening the conflict’s technical reach into Russia raises fear of further escalation beyond the front lines — for civilians, infrastructure and geopolitics alike.
Sunday evening, Kyiv remained tense but silent about pushing the Tomahawk issue into public debate. In Moscow, the streets were quieter than usual, but the threat of a military response looms large. Russian media framed the possible missile transfer in terms of national security and retaliation, stoking public anxiety.
As dusk settled across Eastern Europe, the world watched. If Trump signs off on Tomahawks, the war could move into a new stratosphere — where every missile, every strike, is not just a battlefield act but a calculated gamble on escalation and deterrence.
Source: Reuters
