Zelenskiy arrives to seek weapons from Trump in shadow of Putin summit

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By Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrived at the White House on Friday to plead to Donald Trump for Tomahawk missiles, but the surprise announcement that the U.S. president will meet with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Budapest could dim the Ukrainian leader’s chances of securing the long-range weapons.

Friday’s meeting with Ukraine’s Zelenskiy was scheduled to be a low-key lunch in a cabinet meeting room as opposed to a public gathering in the Oval Office.

Trump announced the summit with Putin on Thursday after a more than two-hour phone conversation with the Russian leader about Russia’s war in Ukraine, which he said was productive.

It was unclear what Putin had told Trump that prompted him to agree to the meeting, as their August summit in Alaska ended early with no major breakthrough.

“My whole life, I’ve made deals,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday. “I think we’re going to have this one done, hopefully soon.” 

The Kremlin said much needed to be decided and that the summit might take place “a little later” than within the two-week period mentioned by Trump.

Trump’s conciliatory tone after the call with Putin raised questions over the near-term likelihood of assistance to Ukraine and reignited European fears of a deal that suits Moscow. A spokesperson for the European Union said it welcomed the talks if they could help bring peace to Ukraine.

WAR HAS INTENSIFIED

The U.S. president, who has campaigned for the Nobel Peace Prize, is eager to add to the list of conflicts he says he has been instrumental in ending.

More than three and a half years after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has ground out some territorial gains this year, but Ukraine’s top military commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Thursday that the Russian offensive had failed.

Putin this month said his forces had taken almost 5,000 square kilometres (1,930 square miles) of land in Ukraine in 2025 – equivalent to adding 1% of Ukraine’s territory to the nearly 20% already held. 

Both sides have also escalated attacks on each other’s energy systems, and Russian drones and jets have strayed into NATO countries. 

The White House had seemed in recent days to be increasingly frustrated with Putin and leaning toward granting Zelenskiy fresh support, including the Tomahawk missiles that Ukrainians say would help them inflict more damage to Russia’s war machine.

“We need them, too,” Trump said of the missiles on Thursday in his remarks to reporters after his call with Putin.

Zelenskiy, who has had an up-and-down relationship with Trump, said Putin, who pressed ahead with assaults on Ukraine after meeting with Trump in Alaska, was again playing for time.

“We can already see that Moscow is rushing to resume dialogue as soon as it hears about Tomahawks,” he wrote on X.

Ukrainians held out little hope for Zelenskiy’s talks with Trump. “We have already gone through this, and we have not seen any tangible results,” said Olena Puchilo, 54, a social worker from Mykolaiv, adding that there was still room for miracles.

ANALYSTS SEE TALKS AS A DELAYING TACTIC

Putin’s move was meant to make the U.S. transfer of such weapons less likely, said Max Bergmann, a Russia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“It does seem that Putin’s outreach is perhaps designed to thwart the potential transfer of Tomahawks to Ukraine, so Putin is wanting to put that back in the box,” Bergmann said. “It strikes me as sort of a stalling tactic.”

Mykola Bielieskov, a senior analyst at Come Back Alive, a Ukrainian non-governmental organization that is a major procurer of military equipment for the Ukrainian armed forces, said Tomahawk missiles would level a playing field that is tipped toward Russia, but that they would not be a silver bullet. 

“We don’t expect Russia to crumble after one, two or three successful strikes,” Bielieskov said. “But it’s about pressure, constant pressure. It’s about disrupting the military-industrial complex.” 

Since taking office in January, Trump has regularly threatened action against Russia, only to delay those steps after talks with Putin.

“The chances of moving toward a ceasefire by pushing Russia to get serious seem to have diminished,” said Dan Fried, a former State Department official.

During Thursday’s call, Putin told Trump that supplying long-range missiles to Ukraine would harm the peace process and damage U.S.-Russia ties, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters. Trump confirmed Putin had opposed such a transfer.

“What do you think he’s going to say, ‘Please sell Tomahawks?'” Trump joked with reporters. “No, he doesn’t want” Tomahawks given to Ukraine, Trump added, calling them a “vicious weapon”.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Trevor Hunnicutt; Additional reporting by Olena Harmash in Kyiv, Cassel Bryan-Low and Tom Balmforth in London, Daphne Psaledakis in Washington, Bhargav Acharya in Toronto, Anita Komuves in Budapest and Anastasia Lyrchikova in Moscow; editing by Philippa Fletcher and Rod Nickel)