Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed Donald Trump’s peacemaking efforts in the Middle East as the Ukrainian leader pressed the US president for more military aid including long-range missiles.
Zelenskyy congratulated Trump on his Gaza peace deal and said there was now an opportunity for the US leader to help end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“There is a big chance,” Zelenskyy said as he and Trump answered media questions ahead of their lunch meeting in the White House on Friday. “I hope that President Trump can manage it.”
The Ukrainian president also suggested Ukraine could swap drones for US Tomahawk missiles.
“Ukraine has thousands of drones but it doesn’t have Tomahawks,” he said.
But the US president, who spoke with Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Thursday ahead of Zelenskyy’s White House visit, expressed his reluctance to push ahead with such a move.
“Tomahawks are very dangerous weapons . . . if you like warfare,” Trump said. “It could mean escalation. Tomahawks are a big deal.”
“Hopefully, we will be able to end the war without thinking about Tomahawks,” Trump told reporters. “We are fairly close to that.”
Kyiv had been hopeful in recent weeks as Trump signalled deeper support for its effort to end Russia’s full-scale invasion. But Trump’s call with Putin has damped the mood in Zelenskyy’s delegation.
Kyiv was now “very nervous” about Friday’s meeting, according to a senior official from the country, and uncertain of what clear victories they might extract.
The meeting is Zelenskyy’s third in the White House this year. His first, in February, broke down into an ugly argument in front of the cameras in the Oval Office, as vice-president JD Vance accused the Ukrainian leader of ingratitude for US support.
