Zelenskiy to meet Trump on Friday to talk air defence, new weapons

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By Yuliia Dysa, Steve Holland and Gram Slattery

KYIV/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that he would meet U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on Friday, where the two would discuss Ukraine’s air defence and long-range strike capabilities.

The two leaders spoke on both Saturday and Sunday amid intensifying discussions about the potential provision of long-range Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv, and a Ukrainian delegation led by Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko is slated to visit Washington before the Friday meeting.

Kyiv has been lobbying Washington to supply the U.S.-produced missiles, which have the capacity to hit Moscow, but which Ukrainians say would be used only on military targets. Moscow has said such a move would represent a serious escalation.

Zelenskiy said he had given Trump, who has increasingly signalled frustration with Russia in recent weeks, an idea of how many of the coveted Tomahawks Ukraine needs.

“Frankly, I’ve already shared our vision with Trump… but some of these things are not for a phone conversation, so we’ll meet,” he told reporters in Kyiv.

Trump has said he is considering sending the missiles to Ukraine, though he has also said he might talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin about it.

Ukraine and the U.S. are also closing in on a landmark drone deal in which Ukraine would share drone technology with the United States. European diplomats see such a deal as an important tool for keeping the mercurial U.S. president engaged and supportive of Ukraine.

Diplomatic efforts to end the war, now in its fourth year, have stalled as Russia steps up strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities and presses forward with grinding gains on the battlefield.

Zelenskiy said he will also meet with representatives of U.S. energy companies to discuss Ukraine’s current needs amid what he described as shifting Russian tactics in strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

Russian forces have recently targeted Ukrainian gas production and the country’s power grid, with Zelenskiy adding that Kyiv could soon be forced to begin importing electricity.

Ukraine has also carried out strikes on Russian oil refineries, causing gasoline shortages.

(Reporting by Steve Holland and Gram Slattery in Washington, Tom Balmforth in London and Yuliia Dysa in Kyiv; Editing by Jeff Mason, Matthew Lewis and Hugh Lawson)