A Russian lawmaker and top Putin ally on Wednesday said Moscow could bomb a NATO air base in Poland if the U.S. follows through on a proposal to send long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine.
In an interview with Russian state media, Russian MP Alexey Zhuravlyov said Poland’s Rzeszow air base would become a legitimate target.
“We aren’t at war with the Polish people, but we’re at war against the Rzeszow base,” he said in a television interview.
The comments are the latest — and most chilling — response from Russia as President Trump weighs a proposal to make the American-made missiles available to Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier claimed that U.S. military personnel would have to directly participate in any Ukrainian Tomahawk strikes, leading to the destruction of the “emerging positive trend” in U.S.-Russian relations, according to a report by the Institute for the Study of War think tank.
Another senior Russian lawmaker on Wednesday confidently predicted the country’s forces could shoot down any Tomahawks.
“We know these missiles very well, how they fly [and] how to shoot them down. We worked with them in Syria, so there is nothing new,” Andrei Kartapolov, a former deputy defense minister, told the state-owned RIA news agency. “The only problems would be for those who supply them and those who use them, that’s where the problems will be.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said any decision by the Trump administration to send Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv would amount to a “serious escalation” that wouldn’t change the situation on the front line in Ukraine.
“This is, of course, a rather dangerous symptom, and it cannot go unnoticed in Moscow,” Mr. Peskov told reporters last week. “We have noticed it [and] if this happens, it will be a new, serious round of tensions that will require an adequate response from the Russian side.”
The Institute for the Study of War said it “continues to assess that the Kremlin is attempting to portray potential U.S. Tomahawk deliveries to Ukraine as a dangerous escalation to deter the United States from sending such weapons to Ukraine.”
Some versions of the BGM-109 Tomahawk Land Attack Missile are capable of striking targets about 1,500 miles from the launch site.
Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia and Eurasia Center, said on Wednesday that Russian officials don’t believe the recent meeting in Alaska between Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump brought both sides closer to peace.
“At a moment when the use of Tomahawks in Ukraine is under consideration, Moscow sees the situation as dire,” Ms. Stanovaya said on X. “Moscow warns Trump about a more acute confrontation and expects him to make what it considers the ‘right’ choice. This also marks a pattern shift: whereas earlier, Putin preferred to placate Trump with some initiatives, now he moves to warnings.”
Russia in recent days has launched a barrage of missiles and attack drones at Ukraine’s energy sector infrastructure.
“Russia is openly trying to destroy our civilian infrastructure right now, ahead of winter — our gas infrastructure, our power generation and transmission. Zero real reaction from the world,” Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy said Friday on X.
“We will fight so that the world does not remain silent and so that Russia feels the response.”
Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs, said Russia was “masking its failed summer offensive” with terror attacks on Ukrainian civilians and infrastructure.
“We will keep supporting Ukraine as long as needed: finalizing the next sanctions package, ensuring financing, and providing weapons. Russia will not stop until forced to,” Ms. Kallas said on X.
Major Russian cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg, along with several critical military bases and war production factories, could be within range of Ukrainian attacks if the U.S. supplies the most capable Tomahawk version. On Monday, Mr. Trump said he would seek clarification from Ukraine about any potential targets.
“I think I want to find out what they’re doing with them,” Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House. “I’m not looking to escalate the war.”
The Institute for the Study of War analysts said Moscow has drawn similar “red lines” in the past only to eventually stand down.
“These Russian threats about Tomahawk missile provisions are part of Russia’s wider reflexive control campaign that aims to coerce Russia’s opponents to make policy decisions that actually benefit Russia,” the ISW said.
But Alexander Dugin, a far-right Russian political commentator with links to the Kremlin, said providing Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine would be “pure disaster.”
“It can’t affect [the] military balance of powers, but certainly will spoil Russian-American relations irreversibly,” he wrote Tuesday on X, calling the notion “irrational and irresponsible” and saying it was a “neocon dream” to force the U.S. into direct conflict with Russia.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
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