By Jeff Mason and Nandita Bose
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited the White House on Friday to plead to Donald Trump for Tomahawk missiles, but the U.S. president’s focus on his next meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Budapest raised the possibility the Ukrainian leader may head home empty-handed.
Upon greeting Zelenskiy outside the White House, Trump nodded when asked by a reporter if he thought he could convince Putin to end the war in Ukraine.
Prior to the private lunch meeting with Zelenskiy, Trump said the two leaders would discuss his call the previous day with Putin.
“Things are coming along pretty well,” Trump told reporters.
Zelenskiy noted how difficult it has been to try and secure a ceasefire. “We want this. Putin doesn’t want (it),” he said.
‘WE NEED TOMAHAWKS’
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, and Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, sat on the president’s side of the table.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine has thousands of drones, but needs missiles. “We don’t have Tomahawks, that’s why we need Tomahawks.”
Trump responded: “We’re going to be talking about Tomahawks,” Trump said. “We’d much rather have them not need Tomahawks.”
He portrayed himself as a mediator and reiterated his belief that both sides seek a peace deal.
“I think President Zelenskiy wants it done, and I think President Putin wants it done. Now all they have to do is get along a little bit,” Trump said.
Trump announced the summit with Putin on Thursday after a more than two-hour phone conversation with the Russian leader about Russia’s war in Ukraine, which he said was productive.
It was unclear what Putin had told Trump that prompted him to agree to the meeting, as their August summit in Alaska ended early with no major breakthrough.
The Kremlin said much needed to be decided and that the summit might take place “a little later” than within the two-week period mentioned by Trump.
Trump’s conciliatory tone after the call with Putin raised questions over the near-term likelihood of assistance to Ukraine and reignited European fears of a deal that suits Moscow. A spokesperson for the European Union said it welcomed the talks if they could help bring peace to Ukraine.
But the president also expressed affection for Zelenskiy, at one point praising him for sporting a dark suit jacket after he was knocked earlier this year for visiting the White House without one.
“I think he looks beautiful in his jacket,” Trump said. “I hope people notice … it’s actually very stylish. I like it.”
WAR HAS INTENSIFIED
The U.S. president, who has campaigned for the Nobel Peace Prize, is eager to add to the list of conflicts he says he has been instrumental in ending.
More than three and a half years after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has ground out some territorial gains this year, but Ukraine’s top military commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Thursday that the Russian offensive had failed.
Putin this month said his forces had taken almost 5,000 square kilometres (1,930 square miles) of land in Ukraine in 2025 – equivalent to adding 1% of Ukraine’s territory to the nearly 20% already held.
Both sides have also escalated attacks on each other’s energy systems, and Russian drones and jets have strayed into NATO countries.
The White House had seemed in recent days to be increasingly frustrated with Putin and leaning toward granting Zelenskiy fresh support, including the Tomahawk missiles that Ukrainians say would help them inflict more damage to Russia’s war machine.
Zelenskiy, who has had an up-and-down relationship with Trump, said Putin, who pressed ahead with assaults on Ukraine after meeting with Trump in Alaska, was again playing for time.
“We can already see that Moscow is rushing to resume dialogue as soon as it hears about Tomahawks,” he wrote on X.
Ukrainians held out little hope for Zelenskiy’s talks with Trump. “We have already gone through this, and we have not seen any tangible results,” said Olena Puchilo, 54, a social worker from Mykolaiv, adding that there was still room for miracles.
ANALYSTS SEE TALKS AS A DELAYING TACTIC
Putin’s move was meant to make the U.S. transfer of such weapons less likely, said Max Bergmann, a Russia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“It does seem that Putin’s outreach is perhaps designed to thwart the potential transfer of Tomahawks to Ukraine, so Putin is wanting to put that back in the box,” Bergmann said. “It strikes me as sort of a stalling tactic.”
Mykola Bielieskov, a senior analyst at Come Back Alive, a Ukrainian non-governmental organization that is a major procurer of military equipment for the Ukrainian armed forces, said Tomahawk missiles would level a playing field that is tipped toward Russia, but that they would not be a silver bullet.
“We don’t expect Russia to crumble after one, two or three successful strikes,” Bielieskov said. “But it’s about pressure, constant pressure. It’s about disrupting the military-industrial complex.”
Since taking office in January, Trump has regularly threatened action against Russia, only to delay those steps after talks with Putin.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Nandita Bose and Trevor Hunnicutt; Additional reporting by Olena Harmash in Kyiv, Cassel Bryan-Low and Tom Balmforth in London, Daphne Psaledakis in Washington, Bhargav Acharya in Toronto, Anita Komuves in Budapest and Anastasia Lyrchikova in Moscow; writing by James Oliphant; editing by Philippa Fletcher and Rod Nickel)
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.