ReutersUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will meet US President Donald Trump in Washington on Friday as Trump decides whether to arm Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles capable of striking deep into Russian territory.
Their meeting came a day after Trump said “great progress” had been made during a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the pair agreed to hold one-on-one 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.
Arriving in the United States (this is his third visit since January), Zelensky said that Moscow “is in a hurry to resume dialogue as soon as it hears about the Tomahawks.”
Zelensky called on the US to provide Ukraine with the latest missiles, which have a range of 2,500 km (1,500 miles).
Asked earlier this week whether Trump was considering providing Tomahawks to Ukraine, he replied: “We'll see… I can.”
But asked about the same prospect after his call with Putin, Trump said “we can't deplete” the U.S. stockpile of Tomahawks, adding that “we need them too… so I don't know what we can do about it.”
Writing on his Truth Social platform after finishing his call with Putin, Trump said he and the Russian president “spent a lot of time discussing trade between Russia and the United States when the war with Ukraine ends.”
He said “high-level advisers” from both countries would meet at an undisclosed location next week, with the US delegation led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Trump also said he would brief Zelensky on his talks with Putin on Friday, adding: “I believe great progress was made in today's call.”
He later told reporters that he expected to meet with Putin in Hungary “within two weeks.”
Hours before Trump and Putin spoke, Russia carried out one of the largest attacks of the year on Ukraine, including 28 ballistic missiles and 320 drones, according to Ukraine's ambassador to the United States, Olga Stefanishina.
Stefanishyna said that Russia, which began night strikes on Ukraine before this call, “reveals Moscow’s true attitude towards the world.”
In a statement to the BBC's US partner CBS, she added: “These attacks show that Moscow's strategy is one of terror and attrition. The only effective response is pressure – through tougher sanctions, stronger air defenses and the supply of long-range weapons.”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on X that the planned meeting in Budapest was “great news for the peace-loving peoples of the world.”
He also previously stated: “Peace requires patience, strength and humility. Europe must change its position. 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 taken a much tougher line with Putin over the war in Ukraine after a face-to-face summit in Alaska in August failed to produce a decisive breakthrough in efforts to broker a peace deal.
The pair met on US soil on August 15 for a summit that the US president hoped would help persuade the Russian president to enter into comprehensive peace talks to end the war in Ukraine. Russia launched a 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 contact between them.
During his presidential campaign, Trump claimed he could end the war in Ukraine within days, but has since acknowledged that resolving the conflict was more challenging than any he has been involved in since returning to power.
Trump was seen as more sympathetic to Russia than his predecessor Joe Biden, and tensions with Zelensky came to a head on Feb. 28 when he and Vice President J.D. Vance berated the Ukrainian president on live television in the Oval Office.
But public relations with Zelensky have improved significantly in recent months.
In September, Trump signaled a major change in his view of the conflict, saying he believed Kyiv could “take back all of Ukraine as it was,” a far cry from his public calls for Kyiv to cede territory occupied by Russia.
ReutersIn late July, Trump set a deadline of less than two weeks for Putin to agree to a ceasefire or face sweeping sanctions, including measures against countries that still trade with Russia.
But he did not follow through on the threat after Putin agreed to meet with Trump in Alaska, which the US president at the time hailed as a significant diplomatic success even though it failed to produce any tangible results.
Earlier on Thursday, India's foreign ministry questioned Trump's statement a day earlier that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had agreed to stop buying Russian oil.
An Indian government spokesman said he was “not aware of any conversation between the two leaders” the day before, after Trump said Modi had assured him the purchases would end “within a short period of time.”
The US is insisting that countries – particularly India, China and NATO members – stop buying Russian energy in an attempt to increase economic pressure on the Kremlin. Zelensky also repeatedly repeated these calls.
