Ahead of White House talks with Zelenskyy, Trump signals hesitancy to sell Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine
Ukranian President Zelenskyy has sought the weapons to enable Ukrainian forces to strike deep into Russian territory and target military sites, energy facilities, and critical infrastructure.
Fresh from brokering a ceasefire and hostage agreement between Israel and Hamas, Trump has said ending the war in Ukraine is now his top foreign policy priority. (AP Photo)
US President Donald Trump is set to host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday, but the US leader signalled he is not yet ready to sell Kyiv long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles that Ukrainian forces say they urgently need.
In recent days, Trump had appeared open to the idea of supplying Ukraine with the missiles, which have a range of about 1,600 km. However, following Thursday’s call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump downplayed the prospects of providing the weapons. “We need Tomahawks for the United States of America too,” Trump said, according to AP reports. “We have a lot of them, but we need them. I mean we can’t deplete our country.”
Zelenskyy has sought the weapons to enable Ukrainian forces to strike deep into Russian territory and target military sites, energy facilities, and critical infrastructure, arguing such strikes could push Putin to take direct negotiations to end the war more seriously.
During the call, Putin warned Trump that sending Tomahawks to Kyiv “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.
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This will be the fourth face-to-face meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy since he returned to office in January, and their second in less than a month.
Trump also announced plans to meet Putin in Budapest, Hungary, to discuss ways to end the war, with senior aides, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, scheduled to meet next week at an unspecified location.
Ahead of his call with Putin, Trump had expressed frustration with the Russian leader. Last month, he suggested Ukraine could regain all territory lost to Russia, a departure from his previous calls for Kyiv to make concessions.
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Trump described his call with Putin as “very productive” and hinted that direct negotiations between Zelenskyy and Putin might need to be conducted indirectly. “They don’t get along too well, those two,” Trump said, according to AP. “So we may do something where we’re separate. Separate but equal.”
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Fresh from brokering a ceasefire and hostage agreement between Israel and Hamas, Trump has said ending the war in Ukraine is now his top foreign policy priority. (AP Photo) 
