Tomahawk cruise missile deliveries to Ukraine may end in disaster for all: Medvedev

Former Russian President and incumbent deputy chairman of the National Security Council Dmitry Medvedev warned Monday that the delivery of U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine for deep strikes inside Russia could have disastrous consequences for all parties.

“The delivery of these missiles will not be good for anyone,” he warned in a post on Russia’s homegrown Max Messenger.

“It is impossible to distinguish the nuclear version of Tomahawks from the conventional one, and their launch will be controlled by the United States,” Medvedev said. he said.
Commenting on Medvedev’s social media post, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged that the potential delivery of such missiles to Kiev could have serious consequences, as the launch of Tomahawk missiles would require the participation of US personnel.

“The handling of such complex missiles will inevitably require the participation of American experts. This is an obvious fact. This is what Medvedev’s article is about,” he told reporters.

“Every expert who follows the issue understands this very well,” Peskov added. Speaking on state-controlled VestiFM radio, Russian military expert Mikhail Khodaryonok explained that since Soviet days, US Tomahawk cruise missiles have been designated as US nuclear offensive weapons and their launch would trigger an automatic response from Russia’s anti-missile defense system. Speaking to the press in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, last week, President Vladimir Putin said that Tomahawk cruise missiles should be launched by Americans and guided them to the final target inside Russia.

“We will have to strengthen our air defenses to reduce the damage done to us, but this will also damage our relations, which are already not in very good shape,” he said.

According to sources cited by various media outlets in the Duma Defense Committee, the USSR had developed various countermeasures against Tomahawk cruise missiles since they first appeared in the late 1970s and mid-1980s.

MiG-31 interceptors were developed to counter them, but today Russia has many other options to shoot them down, including electronic warfare, Su-35 fighter jets, Buk anti-aircraft systems in different phases of flight of these subsonic missiles.