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Volodymyr Zelenskyy left the White House on Friday without a US agreement to send Ukraine Tomahawk missiles, after Donald Trump said the “dangerous” weapons could worsen the war.
The US president had signalled willingness in recent weeks to send the long-range missiles to Kyiv, but changed tack on Friday, telling reporters gathered for his meeting with Ukraine’s president that he did not want to escalate the conflict or drain US stockpiles.
“Tomahawks are very dangerous weapons,” Trump said. “It could mean escalation. Tomahawks are a big deal.”
“Hopefully, we will be able to end the war without thinking about Tomahawks,” he told reporters. “We are fairly close to that.”
Trump’s apparently reversal came a day after he spoke by phone with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. Trump said after the call that he and Putin planned to hold another summit in Budapest, Hungary’s capital.
Zelenskyy said that the conversation with Trump about supplying Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine would continue despite the lack of agreement on Friday.
“Nobody cancelled this dialogue, this topic. So we have to work on it more,” he said.
Trump said his meeting with Zelenskyy had been “cordial”, but urged Kyiv and Moscow to end the war.
“I told him, as I likewise strongly suggested to President Putin, that it is time to stop the killing, and make a DEAL!” he wrote on Truth Social.
Kyiv had been hopeful in recent weeks that Trump would deepen US support for Ukraine’s effort to end Russia’s full-scale invasion. But Trump’s call with Putin has damped the mood in Zelenskyy’s delegation.
Sitting across the table from Trump, the Ukrainian president suggested his country could swap its locally produced and battle-tested drones for US Tomahawk missiles.
“Ukraine has thousands of drones but it doesn’t have Tomahawks,” Zelenskyy said.
The meeting was Zelenskyy’s third in the White House this year. His first, in the Oval Office in February, broke down into an ugly argument in front of the cameras, as US vice-president JD Vance berated the Ukrainian leader and Trump told him he did not “have the cards” to win the war.
Despite failing to secure a guarantee from Trump for the Tomahawk missiles, Zelenskyy expressed confidence in American counterpart’s ability to end the war.
“We understand that Putin is not ready,” Zelenskyy said. But he added that he was “confident” Trump could help shift “momentum to finish Russia’s war against Ukraine” after helping to secure the recent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
