Did US approve Ukraine's use of long-range missiles? Trump reveals the TRUTH

US President Donald Trump clarified on Wednesday (Oct 22) that a news report on the United States giving approval to Ukraine to use long-range missiles deep into Russia was false. In a post on his Truth Social, Trump added that the US "has nothing to do with those missiles." Trump was referring to a news report by The Wall Street Journal, citing unidentified US officials saying that the Trump administration had lifted a restriction on Ukraine's use of some long-range missiles provided by Western allies.

Trump wrote on Truth Social that the Journal story on "the U.S.A.'s approval of Ukraine being allowed to use long range missiles deep into Russia" was false. "The US has nothing to do with those missiles, wherever they may come from, or what Ukraine does with them!," Trump added. Trump had earlier refused to send Tomahawk missiles to the US. This comes at a time when NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte met Trump and said that he supported President's decision not to provide Ukraine with Tomahawk cruise missiles amid the ongoing conflict with Russia. Trump explained that while the Tomahawk is a powerful weapon, its complexity means it’s not a practical option for Ukraine in the near term.

Earlier in the day, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil. This announcement came shortly after Trump canceled a planned second summit with Putin in Budapest, stating the meeting “didn’t feel right” and that progress wasn’t likely, though he left open the possibility of future talks. “I don’t want to have a wasted meeting, I don’t want to have a waste of time — so we’ll see what happens,” Trump said in remarks at the White House on Tuesday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “No precise timeframe was initially set here” and that “Preparation is needed, serious preparation.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also said that Trump’s demand for “an immediate ceasefire, which has suddenly become a topic of discussion again,” was contrary to what was agreed at the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska in August.