Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with President Donald Trump at the White House on Friday, and the two leaders discussed long-range Tomahawk missiles and the broader trajectory of the war with Russia as Kyiv presses for more U.S. military aid. Trump also said he plans to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest in the coming weeks after a lengthy phone call with Putin on Thursday.
“Hopefully they won’t need it, hopefully we’ll be able to get the war over without thinking about Tomahawks,” Trump told reporters at the start of the meeting. “I think we’re fairly close to that.”
The sit-down followed Thursday’s nearly two-and-a-half-hour call between Trump and Putin, during which the Kremlin warned that U.S. delivery of Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine would sharply escalate tensions and represent a “qualitatively new stage of escalation,” Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said. Putin told Trump he did not favor the transfer, Ushakov said.
Trump said he and Zelenskyy discussed the possibility of supplying Tomahawks. “We talked about it a little bit,” he told reporters. “I want to see the war settled.” Trump expressed optimism that both Zelenskyy and Putin want an end to the fighting. “All they have to do is get along a little bit,” he said.
Zelenskyy arrived in Washington after a night of strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, underscoring Kyiv’s push for more air defenses and longer-range weapons to deter future attacks. He framed the discussion as part of a broader effort to secure the capabilities needed to pressure Russia and protect critical systems.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said this week that more “firepower” for Ukraine is coming ahead of a NATO defense ministers’ meeting in Brussels. It was not clear whether that would include Tomahawks.
Trump said Thursday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio will lead a delegation of advisers to meet with Russian officials next week, and he later told reporters that a summit with Putin in Budapest could occur “within two weeks or so.” Kremlin officials described the Thursday call as “highly informative and extremely frank,” and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has cultivated close ties with both leaders, tweeted that preparations for a U.S.-Russia summit in Budapest are underway.
Earlier this summer, Trump and Putin met in Anchorage, Alaska, in a session that a person familiar with it said grew tense and at one point featured a threat by Trump to walk out. Trump has repeatedly said he believes momentum from recent diplomatic developments in the Middle East, including a fragile ceasefire in Gaza, could help push progress toward ending the war in Ukraine.
Congressional leaders have been debating sanctions and other measures aimed at punishing Russia. Asked about legislation by Senate leaders, Trump suggested it might not be the right time to act. “This may be such a productive call that we’re going to end up, we want to get peace, we want to stop the killing,” he said.
Zelenskyy spoke optimistically ahead of the White House meeting. “We expect that the momentum of curbing terror and war that succeeded in the Middle East will help to end Russia’s war against Ukraine,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. He said that when Moscow hears about the prospect of Tomahawks it becomes more eager to resume dialogue.
The White House said Trump would take into account Moscow’s concerns when talking with Zelenskyy. Kremlin officials warned that supplying Tomahawks would not change the battlefield but would damage relations between the countries and hamper prospects for a peaceful resolution.
The outcome of the Oval Office meeting and the planned summit in Budapest could shape U.S. policy on supplying longer-range weapons, and the decisions will be watched closely by Kyiv, Moscow and U.S. allies.
