In a press conference before the closed-door meeting, Zelensky stated that Russian President ‘is not ready for peace’ and praised Trump for the Gaza ceasefire, saying the Republican ‘has a great chance to end the war’ in Ukraine. The Ukrainian leader emphasized the need for a new ceasefire and continued to request more armaments to force Moscow to negotiate. ‘Maintaining a ceasefire is very difficult, as we see now in the Middle East. We want peace. Putin does not want it. That’s why we need to pressure him,’ Zelensky said.
Trump, on the other hand, avoided promising new arms shipments, stating that ‘we would prefer them not needing Tomahawks,’ and reiterated that Putin ‘wants an end to the war.’ The president also acknowledged that Zelensky and Putin have ‘quarrels,’ but that ‘both are doing a great job.’ ‘I think President Zelensky wants it done, just like Putin. All they need to do is understand each other a bit,’ Trump said.
The Republican also showed openness to a ‘drone deal’ with Ukraine, after being asked about the topic by journalists. Zelensky suggested that Kyiv could provide drones in exchange for Tomahawk missiles. ‘We are, yes. We would do that. We have a lot of drones now. We are building our own drones, but we also buy from third parties,’ Trump stated. ‘The drone warfare has really gained prominence in recent years because of this war.’ The approval for supplying Tomahawks, a cruise missile capable of hitting targets over 2,000 km away from Ukrainian territory, would put Russia’s two largest cities — Moscow and St. Petersburg — within reach, potentially changing the course of the war.
However, after a two-hour call with Putin on Thursday, Trump avoided confirming authorization for the missile shipment, signaling that he may once again opt for direct negotiations with the Russian leader to try to end the conflict. But there is a major obstacle to Zelensky’s plans, in addition to the risk of a change of heart from Trump: there are few Tomahawks available, and the systems allowing their ground launch are even more scarce. When asked about the topic at the White House on Thursday, the American stated he ‘cannot deplete the US’s own reserves’ of such armaments. This is a situation that Zelensky has faced before with Trump, who has repeatedly postponed imposing sanctions on Russia and providing more aid to Kiev, while giving Putin chances to negotiate — but so far, no progress has been made.
Trump has been energized in his peace efforts by brokering a ceasefire and prisoner release agreement between Israel and Hamas and made it clear that putting an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine is his next goal. According to the New York Times, the Republican considered the possibility of Tomahawk sales as an incentive for Putin to sit down at the negotiation table. Unlike the fateful meeting in February, when Zelensky was pressured by Trump and his deputy, JD Vance, and left without an agreement related to his country’s mineral resources reserves, the Ukrainian arrived at the White House with reasons to be optimistic. In part due to a appeasement strategy with the Republican, which involves plans for billion-dollar sales of American weapons to Kiev, and partly out of frustration with the delay in a peace agreement, Trump seems more willing to support Ukraine. He is open to tougher sanctions against Moscow but urges his allies to stop buying Russian oil — the White House has not yet given the green light for measures that could strangle the already struggling Russian economy.
Regarding the military aspect, Trump stated, at a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, that Ukraine could recapture all territory lost to Russia — about 20% of the country’s area, according to the borders of 1991 — ‘and more.’ He also gave the green light for Ukrainians to carry out deeper attacks on Russian soil and started providing intelligence data that would allow more precise actions against the country’s energy infrastructure, which is experiencing fuel supply problems.
Meeting with Putin
On the eve of the meeting with the Ukrainian president, Trump said he is expected to meet with Putin following a phone call in which he claimed to have made ‘great progress.’ ‘President Putin and I will meet at a designated location, Budapest, Hungary, to see if we can put an end to this ‘inglorious’ war between Russia and Ukraine,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social. According to the special advisor to the Russian Presidency, Yuri Ushakov, Putin reiterated that his forces maintain ‘full control’ of the frontlines and that the proposal to send Tomahawk cruise missiles — as suggested by the US — to Ukraine would not change the war scenario but would damage relations between Moscow and Washington. He also stated that Russia is committed to ‘a political and diplomatic solution to the war’ and that Trump promised to bring Moscow’s issues to Zelensky. The meeting between Putin and Trump will be the second since the Republican’s current term began. In the first, in August, Trump arrived in Anchorage, Alaska, with the expectation of announcing an immediate ceasefire to the war that began in February 2022 but left empty-handed. Putin, on the other hand, used the photos with Trump as an opportunity to show that he is not completely isolated by the international community. Since then, with the exception of agreements for the exchange of prisoners and mortal remains of fighters, there have been no concrete advances in negotiations to end the conflict. An idea from Trump to bring Zelensky and Putin to the same table seems to have been shelved.
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