Zelensky meets with President on US missiles after Trump-Putin call

2025-10-17 07:41:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet with US President Donald Trump in Washington on Friday, with Trump set to consider whether to equip Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles capable of striking deep into Russia.

Their meeting comes a day after Trump said "great progress" had been made during a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom the parties agreed to hold face-to-face talks in Hungary.

Trump said the call, his first with Putin since mid-August, was "very productive," adding that teams from Washington and Moscow would meet next week.

As Zelensky arrived in the US, his third visit since January, he said Moscow was "hurrying to resume dialogue as soon as it heard about the Tomahawks".

Zelensky has called on the US to provide Ukraine with advanced missiles, which have a range of 2,500 km (1,500 miles).

Asked earlier this week if Trump was considering giving Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, he said: "We'll see... I might do it."

But asked about the same prospect after his call with Putin, Trump said that "we can't exhaust" the US stockpile of Tomahawks, adding "we need them too... so I don't know what we can do about it."

Writing on his "Social Truth" platform after the call with Putin ended, Trump said he and the Russian president "spent a lot of time talking about trade between Russia and the United States once the war with Ukraine is over."

He said "high-level advisers" from both countries will meet at an unspecified location next week, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio leading the US delegation.

Trump also said he would brief Zelensky on his talks with Putin on Friday, adding: "I believe great progress was made with today's phone call."

He later told reporters that he expected to meet with Putin in Hungary within two weeks.

Hours before the Trump-Putin call, Russia launched one of its largest attacks of the year on Ukraine, including 28 ballistic missiles and 320 drones, according to Ukraine's ambassador to the US, Olga Stefanishyna.

Stefanishyna said Russia's launch of overnight airstrikes in Ukraine before the phone call reveals Moscow's true stance on peace.

In a statement to the BBC's US partner CBS, she added: "These attacks show that Moscow's strategy is one of terror and exhaustion. The only effective response is pressure through tougher sanctions, reinforced air defenses and the provision of long-range capabilities."

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on the X show that the planned meeting in Budapest was excellent news for the peace-loving peoples of the world.

Earlier, he also said: "Peace requires patience, strength and humility. Europe must change its stance. Instead of arrogance and fanning the flames of endless war, we need negotiations with Russia. Only dialogue can bring peace to our continent."

Trump has pursued a much tougher stance toward Putin over the war in Ukraine since a face-to-face summit in Alaska in August failed to produce decisive progress in efforts to broker a peace deal.

The pair met on American soil on August 15 for a summit, which the US president hoped would help persuade the Russian president to enter into comprehensive peace talks to end the war in Ukraine. Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

They spoke again a few days later when Trump interrupted a meeting with Zelensky and European leaders to call Putin.

Since then, neither the White House nor the Kremlin have publicly confirmed any communication between the two.

During his presidential election campaign, Trump claimed he would be able to end the war in Ukraine within days, but has since admitted that resolving the conflict has been more challenging than any conflict he has been involved in since returning to power.

Trump had been seen as more sympathetic to Russia than his predecessor Joe Biden, and strained relations with Zelensky reached a peak on February 28 when he and Vice President JD Vance rebuked the Ukrainian president in the Oval Office on live television.

But public relations with Zelensky have improved greatly in recent months.

In September, Trump signaled a major shift in his view of the conflict, saying he believed Kiev could "regain all of Ukraine in its original form," a stark departure from his public calls for Kiev to relinquish territory occupied by Russia./ CNA