WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for talks at the White House on Friday, with the U.S. leader signaling he’s not ready to agree to sell Kyiv a long-range missile system that the Ukrainians say they desperately need.
Zelenskyy gets his one-on-one with Trump a day after the U.S. president and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a lengthy phone call to discuss the conflict.
Speaking to reporters, Trump complimented Zelenskyy on his suit jacket, seemingly a reference to one of the earliest meetings between the two leaders when Zelenskyy earned the president’s ire for showing up in less formal, more militaristic attire.
Zelenkyy said that security guarantees are critical when it comes to the war.
“I think we need to sit and speak,” he said when asked about any concessions he is willing to make to end the war.
Trump was asked whether Zelenskyy or Putin was the better negotiator.
“I think they’re both doing a great job in that sense,” he said.
Trump was also asked about Ukraine’s request for Tomahawk missiles, prompting him to note the U.S. would need those weapons if it were to end up in a war. He also said that instead of giving weapons away, when America sends weapons to the European Union, those are paid for.
“We need tomahawks, and a lot of other things we’ve been sending,” Trump said.
Zelenskyy suggested a trade: Tomahawks for drones that Ukraine has been using in the war.
In recent days, Trump has shown openness to selling Ukraine long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles, even as Putin warned that such a move would further strain the U.S.-Russian relationship.
But following Thursday’s call with Putin, Trump appeared to downplay the prospects of Ukraine getting the missiles, which have a range of about 995 miles.
“We need Tomahawks for the United States of America too,” Trump said. “We have a lot of them, but we need them. I mean, we can’t deplete our country.”
Zelenskyy had been seeking the weapons that would allow Ukrainian forces to strike deep into Russian territory and target key military sites, energy facilities and critical infrastructure. Zelenskyy has argued such strikes would help compel Putin to take Trump’s calls for direct negotiations to end the war more seriously.
But Putin warned Trump during the call that supplying Kyiv with the Tomahawks “won’t change the situation on the battlefield, but would cause substantial damage to the relationship between our countries,” according to Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy adviser.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said that talk of providing Tomahawks had already served a purpose by pushing Putin into talks. “The conclusion is that we need to continue with strong steps. Strength can truly create momentum for peace,” Sybiha said on the social platform X late Thursday.
It will be the fourth face-to-face meeting for Trump and Zelenskyy since the Republican returned to office in January, and their second in less than a month.
Trump announced following Thursday’s call with Putin that he would soon meet with the Russian leader in Budapest, Hungary, to discuss ways to end the war. The two also agreed that their senior aides, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, would meet next week at an unspecified location.
Fresh off brokering a ceasefire and hostage agreement between Israel and Hamas, Trump has said finding an endgame to the war in Ukraine is now his top foreign policy priority and has expressed new confidence about the prospects of getting it done.
Ahead of his call with Putin, Trump had shown signs of increased frustration with the Russian leader.
Last month, he announced that he believed Ukraine could win back all territory lost to Russia, a dramatic shift from the U.S. leader’s repeated calls for Kyiv to make concessions to end the war.
Trump, going back to his 2024 campaign, insisted he would quickly end the war, but his peace efforts appeared to stall following a diplomatic blitz in August, when he held a summit with Putin in Alaska and a White House meeting with Zelenskyy and European allies.
Trump emerged from those meetings certain he was on track to arrange direct talks between Zelenskyy and Putin. But the Russian leader hasn’t shown any interest in meeting with Zelenskyy, and Moscow has only intensified its bombardment of Ukraine.
Trump, for his part, offered a notably more neutral tone about Ukraine following what he described as a “very productive” call with Putin.
He also hinted that negotiations between Putin and Zelenskyy might have to be conducted indirectly.
“They don’t get along too well, those two,” Trump said. “So we may do something where we’re separate. Separate but equal.”