U.S. President Donald Trump welcomes Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday.Win McNamee/Getty Images
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky came to the White House on Friday armed with a proposal to trade American Tomahawk missiles for Kyiv-made drones, arguing that only long-range ordnance would force Russian President Vladimir Putin to get serious about ending his invasion.
U.S. President Donald Trump said he would consider the proposal but signalled that he is reluctant to hand over any missiles and argued that Mr. Putin is already prepared to make a peace deal.
Mr. Zelensky’s third visit to the White House this year unfolded the day after Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin held a lengthy phone call and the U.S. President announced that the pair would meet in person in Hungary. And it followed months of shifting rhetoric from Mr. Trump, in which he has vacillated between appearing to back Mr. Putin’s and Mr. Zelensky’s conditions for a peace deal.
"The president is right," the Ukrainian President told reporters after being asked to comment on Trump’s call for the two sides to “stop where they are.”
The Associated Press
At the start of a lunch between Mr. Zelensky, Mr. Trump and several top officials on both sides, the Ukrainian President reiterated his contention that Mr. Putin “is not ready” to make peace.
“We want peace, Putin doesn’t,” Mr. Zelensky told reporters. “That’s why we need pressure on him. We will speak with President today on what we need.”
The Ukrainian President said he had a “written proposition” with him to give the U.S. “thousands of drones” in exchange for Tomahawks. Kyiv has long sought the missiles, which would take out long-distance targets within Russia.
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Asked if he was interested in such a deal with Ukraine, Mr. Trump replied “we are, yeah,” but indicated he was reluctant to give Kyiv the missiles.
“We’d much rather have them not need Tomahawks. We’d much rather have the war be over, to be honest,” the U.S. President said. “They’re a very powerful weapon, but they’re a very dangerous weapon and it could mean big escalation. It could mean a lot of bad things could happen.”
Mr. Trump said he and his country “want Tomahawks also” and “don’t want to be giving away things that we need to protect our country.”
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on Thursday to another summit on the war in Ukraine, a surprise move that came as Moscow feared fresh U.S. military support for Kyiv.
Reuters
The U.S. President said he was “making great progress” toward a peace deal and “things are coming along pretty well” after his conversation with Mr. Putin.
He also suggested that the only thing standing in the way of an agreement was a personality clash between Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelensky. “I think President Zelensky wants it done and I think President Putin wants it done. Now all they have to do is get along a little bit.”
After the meeting, Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social that he had told both Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Putin “that it is time to stop the killing, and make a DEAL!”
“Enough blood has been shed, with property lines being defined by War and Guts. They should stop where they are. Let both claim Victory, let History decide!” the President wrote. He did not specify whether both sides stopping in their current positions meant that he favoured Russia keeping the swathes of Ukrainian land it has captured.
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Currently, Russia occupies a section of Ukraine’s Donbas region and Crimean peninsula. Moscow has demanded that it be allowed to keep all of both regions, including parts of Donbas it does not currently control, as part of a peace deal.
Speaking with reporters after the meeting, Mr. Zelensky said most of the meeting was focused on air defence but that he and Mr. Trump had agreed to keep details on long-range weapons confidential.
“We spoke also about long-range, of course, and I do not want to make statements about it. We decided that we don’t speak about it because the United States doesn’t want escalation,” Mr. Zelensky said in Lafayette Square near the White House.
He said he favoured having both sides agree to a ceasefire and stop fighting where their current lines are before negotiating a peace deal. Mr. Putin has pushed to instead keep fighting as long as negotiations continue.
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“Russia wants, before any ceasefire, to make a deal about land. Our position is: first we need a ceasefire, to sit and speak and understand where we are. This will be the most difficult issue in any negotiations,” Mr. Zelensky said. “I think we have to stop where we are. This is important – to stop where we are. And then to speak. Both sides have to stop.”
Mr. Zelensky’s trip to Washington this time was longer than his previous visits to Mr. Trump. On Thursday, he said, he sat down with executives from weapons manufacturers Lockheed Martin to discuss F-16 aircraft and Raytheon to talk about Patriot missiles, and also met with energy industry executives. He spent the night at Blair House, the guest house across the street from the White House for visiting foreign leaders.
Despite their apparent disagreement on missiles, Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Trump evinced more warmth than usual. Mr. Trump praised Mr. Zelensky as “a very strong leader” and “a man who has been through a lot.” Mr. Zelensky said Mr. Trump’s brokering of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas provided “momentum to finish Russia’s war against Ukraine.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks next to U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Vice President JD Vance during a meeting with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday.Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
The pair have had a rocky relationship.
In a televised Oval Office meeting in February, Mr. Trump and Vice-President JD Vance berated Mr. Zelensky for not showing sufficient gratitude to the United States for its military aid to Ukraine. A second similar sit-down in August went better for Mr. Zelensky after he made a point of thanking Mr. Trump 12 times and the U.S. President agreed that Washington would give Kyiv security guarantees as part of any peace deal. Mr. Trump, however, also pressed Mr. Zelensky to agree to give up Ukrainian territory to Russia.
In dealing with Mr. Putin, Mr. Trump has similarly wavered. At times, he has publicly scolded the Russian President for continuing to bomb Ukrainian civilians instead of seeking peace, called for a swift ceasefire, and accused Mr. Putin of stringing him along. After meeting with Mr. Putin in Alaska in August, however, Mr. Trump backed down on the ceasefire demand and promised to set up a three-way meeting between himself, Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelensky.
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That meeting never materialized, however, and after meeting with Mr. Zelensky on the sidelines of the United Nations in New York last month, Mr. Trump encouraged Ukraine’s position that it would make no territorial concessions to Russia.
“Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form,” and “even go further than that!” he posted on Truth Social at the time.
Mr. Trump’s tone on Friday was more positive on Mr. Putin, but he still acknowledged the possibility that Moscow is again simply playing for time.
“I’ve been played all my life by the best of them and I came out really well,” he said.