ISTANBUL

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said talks on the potential supply of long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine by the US are an “attempt at escalation.”

“This is an attempt at escalation, but if all strikes on Russian territory are carried out with such weapons, the response will be very strong, if not overwhelming,” Putin told reporters after taking part in the plenary session of the 17th Congress of the Russian Geographical Society (RGS) in Moscow.

The remarks came a day after US President Donald Trump seemed to dismiss the possibility of supplying Tomahawks to Kyiv, saying the weapons are "complex" for Ukrainian forces to operate without extensive US training.

The US president said earlier this month that he was close to deciding whether to send Tomahawks to Kyiv, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he requested in September.

Putin has previously voiced concern about the US sending Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, warning that it would "destroy" US-Russian relations and lead to a "completely new, qualitatively new stage of escalation."

He also commented on the latest Western sanctions on Moscow, describing them as an "attempt to exert pressure."

"But no self-respecting country and no self-respecting people ever decides anything under pressure," he said.

Earlier Thursday, the EU passed its 19th and latest package of sanctions on Moscow. The US Treasury Department announced Wednesday that it imposed new sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil.

Putin argued that the sanctions may have certain consequences, but will not have a significant effect on the well-being of the Russian economy, noting that Trump imposed the "largest number of sanctions ever imposed" against Russia during his first term in the White House.

Defining the latest round of US sanctions as an “unfriendly act," Putin said they do not strengthen Moscow-Washington ties, which he argued were only just beginning to recover. He accused the current US administration of damaging relations with "such actions."

Putin said Russia and the US have "many areas for joint work" if they move toward discussions on the long-term future, including in the economic sphere.

"We are generally prepared for this, but as we see it, this depends not only on the Russian Federation but also on our partners, in this case, the Americans," he said, adding that a decline in the presence of Russian oil and petroleum products on the global market will raise prices, including in the US.​​​​​​​

Putin also commented on Trump's announcement Wednesday that he canceled an upcoming summit with the Russian president in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, saying the US president "most likely" talked about postponing the meeting.

"What can I say? Dialogue is always better than any confrontation, any disputes, or especially war. That's why we've always supported continued dialogue, and we continue to support it now," Putin said, noting that the US proposed the meeting and its venue.

He said he agreed with the proposal, but noted that such meetings need to be well prepared in advance. "It would be a mistake for both me and the American president to approach this lightly and leave this meeting without the expected result."