However, Jennifer Kavanagh, a senior fellow and director of military analysis at the Washington-based Defense Priorities think tank, characterized the current U.S. approach as “theater,” reflecting a basic White House trajectory: a desire to end the war while remaining “very unwilling to use actual sticks” to force a conclusion.
In an interview with Kyiv Post on Friday ahead of the White House meeting, Kavanagh specifically discounted the immediate utility of providing offensive weapons like Tomahawks, suggesting the discussion is more of a symbolic threat that is unrealistic in the near term.
“To me, the Tomahawk discussion was a little bit of a charade,” she stated. “There just really is no way in the near term for Ukraine to launch Tomahawk missiles… those are like medium term solutions, not things that happen right away,” she added,
Kavanagh argued that while Trump does not want to see Ukraine collapse—a scenario that would be politically damaging—his focus remains constrained by low U.S. military stockpiles and a preference for non-escalatory measures.
Featuring
Events on Ukraine-Russia
