From the Associated Press: President Donald Trump is set to host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for talks at the White House on Friday, with the U.S. leader signaling he’s not ready to agree to sell Kyiv a long-range missile system that the Ukrainians say they desperately need.
Zelenskyy gets his one-on-one with Trump a day after the U.S. president and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a lengthy phone call to discuss the conflict.
In recent days, Trump had shown an openness to selling Ukraine long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles, even as Putin warned that such a move would further strain the U.S.-Russian relationship.
But following Thursday’s call with Putin, Trump appeared to downplay the prospects of Ukraine getting the missiles, which have a range of about 995 miles (1,600 kilometers.)
“We need Tomahawks for the United States of America, too,” Trump said. “We have a lot of them, but we need them. I mean, we can’t deplete our country.”
Putin apparently told Trump during their last phone call that supplying Kyiv with the Tomahawks “won’t change the situation on the battlefield, but would cause substantial damage to the relationship between our countries,” according to Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser.
It has already served a purpose, however, according to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha. He said the Tomahawks proposition pushed Putin into talks again.
“The conclusion is that we need to continue with strong steps. Strength can truly create momentum for peace,” Sybiha said in a post on X.
According to the AP, Zelenskyy is preparing to ask Trump for additional American-made air defenses, too.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he and Zelenskyy will discuss his call with Putin “and much more” when they meet Friday.
There is some hope for peace. “I believe great progress was made with today’s telephone conversation,” Trump said about the call in a Truth Social post.
Next, Trump said he and Putin will meet in Budapest, Hungary, as a peace deal is sought. No date has been set for this meeting.
“Meanwhile, Russia has battered Ukraine’s energy facilities with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles in its latest heavy bombardment of the country’s power grid, authorities said Thursday,” the AP reports. “Eight Ukrainian regions experienced blackouts after the barrage, Ukraine’s national energy operator, Ukrenergo, said.”
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