The US could gradually lift restrictions on using the long-range missiles, a senior official in Kiev has told the Telegraph

Ukraine could use US Tomahawk missiles to launch increasingly escalatory strikes on targets inside Russia in order to "pressure" Moscow to agree to a peace deal, an official in Kiev has claimed to The Telegraph.

Washington first signaled last month that it was considering supplying Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine. The weapons, which cost about $1.3 million each and have a range of 2,500km (1,550 miles), could reach targets deep inside Russia, including Moscow. President Donald Trump said on Monday that he had "sort of made a decision" on the matter, but added that "I'm not looking to see escalation."

Egor Cherniev, deputy chairman of the Ukrainian parliament's national security, defense, and intelligence committee, suggested that the missiles could be deployed in phases, with one scenario being that they would not be fired at all, or only used against a narrow range of targets.

"First they will give us rockets, but a few pieces, or a couple of dozen, but they will not allow us to shoot them at once and we will see the Kremlin's reaction," he said, as quoted by The Telegraph.

If Russia does not respond, he added, "the envelope increases, allowing strikes on the Russian border." Eventually, he suggested, in order to push Moscow towards talks, all restrictions might be lifted "except perhaps strikes on the Kremlin and directly on [Russian President Vladimir] Putin."

"This whole epic could take at least a few months. But it's already real pressure," Cherniev argued.

Putin warned last week that sending Tomahawks to Ukraine would "lead to the destruction of [Russia-US] relations, or at least the positive tendencies that have appeared in these relations."

The Russian leader has also pointed out that Ukrainian forces would be unable to operate the system without "direct participation of American military personnel," adding that the deliveries would not alter "the balance of power on the battlefield."

Putin recalled previous shipments of long-range ATACMS missiles to Ukraine, which he said at first "caused some damage, but in the end, Russia's air defense systems adapted."

(RT.com)