President Donald Trump is preparing to host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday, but signs are emerging that the U.S. may not fulfill Ukraine’s urgent request for Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Just a day before the meeting, Trump held an extended phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the ongoing conflict. The timing of that call and Trump’s subsequent remarks have raised questions about whether Washington will move forward with supplying Kyiv the long-range weapons it has been seeking.
In recent weeks, the Trump administration had shown tentative openness to selling Ukraine Tomahawk missiles — a system with a strike range of nearly 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers). Ukrainian officials argue that these missiles could change the course of the war, allowing them to hit deep into Russian territory and target crucial infrastructure, energy sites, and military command centers.
However, after the conversation with Putin, Trump seemed to temper his stance. “We need Tomahawks for the United States of America too,” the president told reporters. “We have a lot of them, but we need them. I mean we can’t deplete our country.”
Putin, according to his foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, warned Trump that supplying Ukraine with Tomahawks “won’t change the situation on the battlefield, but would cause substantial damage to the relationship between our countries.”
Friday’s meeting marks the fourth face-to-face encounter between Trump and Zelenskyy since Trump’s return to the Oval Office in January — and their second within a month. The discussion comes as Trump positions himself as a global negotiator, fresh off brokering a temporary ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. He has repeatedly said that ending the war in Ukraine is now his top foreign policy priority.
Trump announced after the Putin call that he plans to meet the Russian president soon in Budapest, Hungary, to explore “possible pathways to peace.” Senior U.S. and Russian diplomats, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, are also scheduled to meet next week to continue discussions.
Despite his previous optimism, Trump’s stance toward Moscow has appeared increasingly complex. Just last month, he claimed Ukraine could reclaim all territory lost to Russia — a notable shift from his earlier calls for Kyiv to make concessions in the name of peace.
While Trump campaigned in 2024 on promises to “end the war swiftly,” his diplomatic efforts have yet to yield direct negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv. Following a series of high-level meetings in August — including a summit with Putin in Alaska and consultations with Zelenskyy and European allies at the White House — hopes for direct talks faded as Russia intensified its attacks.
Speaking after his latest call with Putin, Trump described the exchange as “very productive” but hinted that future talks between Zelenskyy and Putin might not happen face-to-face. “They don’t get along too well, those two,” he said. “So we may do something where we’re separate — separate but equal.”
