Trump says he plans to meet Putin in Budapest as Zelenskyy prepares to make missiles case at White House | Ukraine

Volodymyr Zelenskyy will travel to the White House on Friday for an important meeting with Donald Trump, just hours after the US president announced that he had agreed to a new summit with Vladimir Putin in Budapest after a “very productive” meeting.

It is expected that the possible supply of US Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine will be at the top of the agenda during the visit of the Ukrainian president. Trump will give Kiev its longest-range weapon in recent weeks, but has repeatedly hinted that he might deliver Tomahawks that could hit Moscow with accurate, devastating munitions.

But Trump’s conciliatory tone after his meeting with Putin cast doubt on the possibility of immediate aid to Ukraine and reignited fears in Europe that the United States would capitulate to Moscow.

Trump said he “didn’t like it” when Putin raised the possibility of giving Ukraine Tomahawk weapons with a range of up to 2,415km, but later said the US “cannot exhaust” its own supply, casting doubt on whether Zelenskyy would buy the American-made weapon.

“We need them too, so I don’t know what we can do about it,” Trump said.

Fresh off brokering a peace deal in Gaza, the US president has signaled that he is willing to build on the momentum of this diplomatic victory by increasing pressure on Moscow to end Vladimir Putin’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, now in its fourth year.

On the eve of Zelenskyy’s visit, Trump said he planned to meet Putin in the Hungarian capital on a yet-to-be-determined date with the aim of ending the war. The duo, who previously met in Alaska in August, did not make any diplomatic progress.

In the past, Trump has set deadlines for Moscow and promised to impose damaging sanctions on the Russian economy, but has backtracked. He often softened his stance after speaking or meeting Putin.

Although supplying Tomahawks is symbolically important, as the idea already bothers the Kremlin, they are only available in relatively small quantities; estimated by some experts to be between 20 and 50 missiles.

Twice over the weekend, Trump and Zelenskyy spoke by phone in calls that the Ukrainian President described as “productive”; It was a striking reversal of the White House stripping policy in February, which exposed the rift between the two leaders.

Tomahawks were first used in combat in 1991 and are launched from ships and submarines not normally based in Ukraine. Costing an estimated $1.3 million (£1 million) each, the range of these missiles makes Moscow well within reach and offers far more destructive power than long-range drones.

There is also the Typhon, a relatively new ground-launched variant; this is more suitable for Ukraine, but the supply of launchers is insufficient. The US military is known to have only two, but another launcher thought to be more mobile than the Typhon, the X-Mav, was unveiled this week.

Rob Lee, senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, He said: “From what I understand, there aren’t many Tomahawks in the US. There are launchers that can launch them from the ground, but the military doesn’t have many of them.”

Pavel Luzin, an independent Russian military analyst, said: “The Typhon system itself is new and is currently being produced for the US military. And it is not just a launcher; it includes means of transport and reloading, as well as a special command centre.”

In recent weeks, the Trump administration has also authorized the sharing of U.S. intelligence to help Ukraine carry out precision attacks on Russia’s oil refineries using domestically produced drones and U.S.-supplied Atacms missiles. These attacks led to fuel shortages across Russia and a sharp increase in gasoline prices.

Politicians and experts believe cruise missiles could strengthen this strategy, but missiles are generally thought to be most effective if launched in salvos, which would be difficult in limited numbers.

On Tuesday, Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski argued that these could be particularly effective because Russia’s size makes air defense coverage difficult. The Institute for the Study of War estimates that 1,900 Russian military targets are within range of the Tomahawk version, which is more than 1,500 miles.

But the real question is whether Trump has put the possibility of procuring Tomahawks on hold to pressure Putin and is unwilling to take a step that could bring the United States closer to direct conflict with a leader he still calls a “close friend.”

The Kremlin has said Ukraine’s reliance on Washington for training, logistics and targeting intelligence to operate the Tomahawks would draw the United States into war on an unprecedented scale and undo the progress Moscow claims it has made with the Trump administration.

Zelenskyy, who arrived in Washington on Thursday, said Moscow “hurried to restart the dialogue as soon as it heard about the Tomahawks.”

Some in Moscow said the Kremlin viewed Trump’s talk about Tomahawks as little more than a negotiating gambit to pressure Putin; They said the move was unlikely to surprise the Russian president.

“Russia sees this as a master artist’s bluff… the threat is not credible because there is no practical way to do it in meaningful numbers. Russia will shrug it off,” said Vladimir Frolov, a former Russian diplomat.

Still, the Kremlin has in recent days issued Trump its strongest warnings since taking office; It’s a dramatic change in attitude from Moscow, where many expect Washington to help broker a deal in Ukraine that favors Russia.

Putin last week warned the United States against Tomahawk procurement, saying their transfer would mark a “qualitatively new phase of escalation.”

On Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov sounded a similar note, telling state radio Mayak that the delivery of cruise missiles to Ukraine “could lead to a qualitatively new level of escalation in the conflict,” adding: “This would be a very serious new step in this direction.”

A former senior Russian defense official said Moscow was more concerned about what the delivery of the weapons would symbolize than the Tomahawks’ impact on the battlefield.

“Moscow does not believe that the Tomahawks will dramatically change the situation on the ground,” said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“But this would be the clearest sign yet that Putin has lost Trump, and that is a source of deep concern for them. Their deliveries would cross the red line, after which Trump may feel emboldened to increase US arms supplies to Ukraine.”