Trump downplays hopes he will supply Ukraine with US missiles after meeting with Zelenskyy | Ukraine
In a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House, Donald Trump appeared more intent on brokering a peace deal than supplying Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine, saying the United States might need them for a future conflict.
Although Trump did not rule out providing the long-range missiles Zelenskyy sought, Trump remained cool to the prospect as he looked forward to a meeting with Vladimir Putin in Hungary in the coming weeks.
After meeting with Zelenskyy for more than two hours, Trump implored both Ukraine and Russia to “immediately stop the war” even if it meant Ukraine ceding territory.
“If you stand on the battle line, both sides should go home to their families,” Trump told reporters on his way to his home in West Palm Beach, Florida. “Stop the killing. That’s how it should be. Stand in the battle line immediately. I told President Zelenskyy that. I told President Putin that too.”
The Ukrainian leader was blunt, telling Trump that Ukraine had thousands of UAVs ready to attack Russian targets but needed American missiles.
“We don’t have Tomahawks, so we need Tomahawks,” he said.
Trump responded: “We’d rather they didn’t need tomahawks.”
Trump later reiterated that he wanted the United States to keep its weapons. “We want Tomahawks, too. We don’t want to give away the things we need to protect our country,” he said.
Trump’s skepticism about cruise missiles follows his surprise phone call with Vladimir Putin on Friday. During this phone call, the Russian leader told Trump that the supply of Tomahawk missiles would harm US-Russia relations.
His stance on supplying arms to Ukraine has changed several times since he returned to office in January, usually following negotiations with Putin or Ukraine’s European backers.
During the meeting with Zelenskyy at the White House, Trump also discussed plans to hold a bilateral meeting with Putin in Hungary and said that “it has to be decided” whether Zelenskyy will attend, but that he would keep him informed about the discussions.
“There’s a lot of bad blood,” Trump said.
Following Friday’s talks, the US president made a stern call to both sides on social media to “stop the killing and make a DEAL!”
“They must stand where they are. Let both declare Victory, let History decide!” Trump shared a post on Truth Social.
Zelenskyy told reporters he did not want to talk about long-range missiles, that the US did not want to escalate tensions and that he was “realistic” about the chances of getting them.
Speaking to European leaders by phone after the meeting, the Ukrainian president said he trusted Trump to pressure Putin to “stop this war.”
Kremlin top aide Yuri Ushakov previously said Putin initiated a call with Trump on Thursday, during which the Russian leader urged his US counterpart not to supply Tomahawks to Ukraine.
“I actually said: ‘Do you mind if I give your opposition a few thousand Tomahawks?’ I told him this. “That’s what I said,” Trump said, describing the conversation.
“He didn’t like the idea. Sometimes you have to be a little cheerful.”
Ushakov told reporters in Moscow that Putin warned Trump during the meeting that providing Tomahawk missiles to Kiev “will not change the situation on the battlefield, but will seriously damage relations between our countries.”
It was the eighth known meeting between the two men since Trump’s second inauguration in January and followed a familiar pattern in the complex and often confusing contest between Putin and Zelenskyy for Trump’s ear.
On previous occasions when Trump appeared ready to turn to Kiev and its European allies, Putin’s call had often been followed by a sudden softening of the US leader’s tone towards Moscow.
The movement started with the statement made after Trump announced that he planned to meet with the Russian President in the Hungarian capital on an undetermined date in order to end the war.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday morning that the summit could be held “in two weeks or later.”
Peskov said Putin had already discussed the planned meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Orbán, one of the prominent European leaders with warm ties to Trump and Putin, said he also spoke to Trump about the summit and wrote to X: “Preparations for the US-Russia peace summit are continuing.”
It remains unclear how Putin will travel to Hungary, given that he is wanted by the international criminal court (ICC), as well as EU sanctions and airspace restrictions imposed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Hungary, a signatory of the ICC, will have to arrest him, but Orbán has previously said this will not happen.
When asked about logistical difficulties, Peskov said the route was “uncertain of course so far.”
Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó said on Friday that Putin can enter and leave the country. “There is no need to consult with anyone, we are a sovereign country here. We will take it. [Putin] “With respect, welcome him and provide the necessary conditions for him to negotiate with the American president,” he said.
Trump and Putin last met in Alaska in August, but no diplomatic progress was made. Trump added that new high-level talks will be held next week between Washington and Moscow, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the US side, before the presidential summit in Budapest.
The last meeting, which lasted more than two and a half hours, appears to have disrupted the momentum Zelenskyy had created with Trump; The US leader is now unlikely to show significant support for Ukraine before meeting Putin.
John Foreman, Britain’s former defense attaché in Moscow and Kiev, said: “Zelenskyy must be tearing his hair out. Today’s meeting with Trump is now completely overshadowed and overshadowed by the Budapest meeting.”
Trump also hinted that talks between Putin and Zelenskyy may have to be held indirectly, contradicting Zelenskyy’s long-standing goal of meeting Putin face-to-face to end the war.
“These two don’t get along very well,” Trump said. “So we can do something where we’re separate. Separate but equal.”
Zelenskyy, who landed in Washington on Thursday and met with US defense contractors before his visit to the White House, did not make any comments about the Putin-Trump meeting, but there are few in Kiev who welcome it.
Some Ukrainian officials tried to put the meeting on a positive note, saying Putin’s outreach highlighted the Russian leader’s fears of new arms supplies from Ukraine.
“Today’s meeting between US President Donald Trump and Putin shows how even the debate about Tomahawk missiles is forcing Putin to re-enter dialogue with America.” Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha wrote about X. “The conclusion is that we must continue with force. Strength can truly create momentum for peace.”
While Moscow has repeatedly claimed that it is ready to end its occupation of Ukraine, Putin has shown no indication that he is seeking compromise or trying to scale back his maximalist goal of forcing Kiev to surrender.
Despite Trump’s optimistic rhetoric that peace could be near, US vice president J.D. Vance struck a more cautious note on Thursday, saying “the Russians and Ukrainians are not yet at the point where they can make a deal” and that a deal “is possible but would require a lot of more work.”
In an interview with conservative news channel Newsmax, Vance talked about what he called a “misalignment of expectations” and said, “The Russians tend to think they’re doing better on the battlefield than they actually are.”
Additional reporting by Jennifer Rankin
