Putin-Trump call a curveball for Zelensky ahead of White House meeting

News of a telephone conversation between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which they agreed to meet in person on Thursday to discuss the war in Ukraine, will come as an unwelcome surprise for Kiev.

The country is being hit hard.

In the last 24 hours alone, Russia has been seen launching dozens of missiles and more than 300 drones at multiple targets.

Once again, they include large amounts of civilian infrastructure, further damaging the country’s gas supply network, as the first signs of cold weather herald the long and difficult winter ahead.

Attacks on the power grid are already causing power outages across the country.

For the Ukrainian government, this is a sign of Russia’s desperation.

The front lines are in a virtual stalemate, involving huge losses of life for ever-increasing territorial gains.

The Russian economy is also feeling the effects of increasingly effective drone attacks on the Ukrainian army’s oil depots.

So President Volodymyr Zelensky’s best hope was for more American military assistance to maintain this pressure.

He seemed to believe things were going well before boarding his plane to Washington.

There was optimistic talk that Trump was starting to see the world through Ukrainian eyes; This was a big shift from that angry, derogatory Oval Office speech in February, in which he accused Zelensky of “gambling with World War III.”

The failure of the Trump-Putin Alaska summit in August and the intensified bombardment of Ukraine were thought to have caused the US president to lose patience with his “good friend”, as he called Putin.

There were high hopes that Friday’s meeting would finally deliver the reward Ukraine was seeking: Trump authorizing the purchase of long-range Tomahawk missiles.

Trump’s frustration with Putin was made clear on Sunday when he told reporters: “They [Russia] Want tomahawks to head towards them? I don’t think so.”

But how game-changing the missiles will actually be is a matter of great debate among military experts, and their deployment could take months due to complex logistics.

But they would at least increase Ukraine’s ability to strike deep into Russia’s heartland with a much more powerful weapon than it currently has.

They would also send a strong physical message to Putin about America’s changing allegiances.

So the two-and-a-half-hour Trump-Putin phone call, which took place while Zelensky was on the run, kind of casts a shadow over the Ukrainian president’s big moment.

But so far he has taken a bold stance, claiming Russia was panicking in a dispatch he sent upon his arrival in Washington.

He said that the Kremlin was “rushing to renew the dialogue” precisely because of the Tomahawks’ speeches.

Other analysts will see less panic and more classic Putin trickery at work in the phone call, which the Kremlin says took place at Russia’s behest.

The Tomahawk issue was indeed discussed, and Putin reinforced his view that their deployment would be seen as a significant act of provocation.

The two men apparently discussed what Russia called the “enormous prospects” of trade if peace was achieved.

They then decided to summit in Hungary. Trump said this will likely happen within the next two weeks.

As Ukraine faces its fourth winter of war, few here believed Trump’s claim that he could turn his “success” in the Middle East into momentum toward peace in Ukraine.

A woman the BBC spoke to who was seriously injured in a Russian attack on a civilian railway carriage shrugged when we asked if she saw an easy way out.

“Someone like Putin cannot be trusted,” he said from his hospital bed.

Arriving in Washington on Thursday evening, Zelensky met with representatives of defense companies that produce the powerful weapons Ukraine needs to strengthen its protection.

He’ll still ask the White House for Tomahawks.

But whether Trump was willing to grant them was always in question, and now certainly needs to be questioned further.

Meanwhile, something is being given to Russia.

A familiar pattern is developing. As Trump becomes increasingly frustrated with Putin’s intransigent stance on Ukraine, he is soothed by a conversation with the Russian President.

He seems convinced of Putin’s point of view every time they talk, backing away from threats to impose tougher sanctions or provide more destructive weapons.

The Hungary summit, which was presented without compromise, does not seem to have lost America’s patience.

Forget about tomahawks.

For now, Ukraine has been given a long-range corner instead.