Volodymyr Zelensky visited the White House on Friday to ask Donald Trump for Tomahawk missiles, but the US president’s focus on his next meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Budapest, raised the possibility that he is more determined to negotiate peace than to improve kyiv’s arsenal.
Although Trump did not rule out the possibility of providing the long-range Tomahawk missiles Zelensky seeks, he appeared to cool that prospect.
Trump’s decision to re-engage with Putin, a strategy that has frustrated kyiv and some European allies in the past, overshadowed the cordial meeting.
Before the private lunch with Zelensky, Trump said that he would talk to them about his conversation the previous day with Putin. “Things are going pretty well,” he noted.
Zelensky noted how difficult it has been to try to secure a ceasefire. “We want it. Putin doesn’t want it,” he said.
Zelensky maintained that Ukraine has thousands of drones, but needs missiles. “We don’t have Tomahawks, that’s why we need Tomahawks.”
Trump responded: “Let’s talk about Tomahawks. “We’d rather they didn’t need Tomahawks.”
The president presented himself as a mediator and reiterated his belief that both parties are seeking a peace agreement. “I think President Zelensky wants it done, and I think President Putin wants it done. Now all they have to do is get along a little bit,” he noted.
Trump announced on Thursday the meeting with Putin in two weeks in Budapestafter a more than two-hour telephone conversation about the war that he said was productive.
It was unclear what Putin had told Trump to get him to agree to the meeting.as their August summit in Alaska ended early without any major progress.
The Kremlin said much remained to be decided and the summit could be held “a little later” than the two-week deadline mentioned by Trump.
Trump’s conciliatory tone after call with Putin raised questions about the near-term likelihood of aid to Ukraine and revived fear in Europe of an agreement that suits Moscow.
But he also expressed affection for Zelensky, at one point praising him for wearing a dark suit, after he came under fire earlier this year for visiting the White House in casual attire.
“I think he looks gorgeous in his jacket,” Trump said. “I hope people realize (…) it’s very elegant. I like it.”
Trump, who campaigned to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, He is eager to add to the list of conflicts to which he claims to have contributed.
After the meeting, Zelensky said he had a productive meeting with Trump. “We trust that (the Republican) wants to end the war,” he stressed.
More than three and a half years after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has made some territorial gains this year, But Ukraine’s top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Thursday that the Russian offensive had failed.
Putin said this month that his forces had captured almost 5,000 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory by 2025, which is equivalent to adding 1% of Ukrainian territory to the almost 20% they already owned.
Both sides have also intensified their attacks on each other’s energy systems and Russian drones have entered NATO countries.
In recent days, the White House seemed increasingly frustrated with Putin and inclined to grant Zelensky new support, including Tomahawk missiles that the Ukrainians believe would help them inflict more damage on the Russian war machine.
Zelensky, who has had an up-and-down relationship with Trump, He said Putin, who pressed ahead with assaults on Ukraine after the Alaska meeting in August, is again playing with time.
“We can already see that Moscow is quick to resume dialogue as soon as it finds out about the Tomahawks,” he wrote on the social network X.
During Thursday’s conversation, Putin told Trump that supplying long-range missiles to Ukraine would harm the peace process and damage ties between the United States and Russia.Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters.
