By Nandita Bose, Gram Slattery and Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy came to the White House on Friday looking for weapons to continue fighting his country's war with Russia, but met a U.S. president who seemed more intent on brokering a peace deal than upgrading Kiev's arsenal.
While US President Donald Trump did not rule out supplying the long-range Tomahawk missiles Zelenskiy is seeking, Trump appeared cool to the prospect as he looked ahead to a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a few weeks.
Trump's move to reengage with Putin, a strategy that has frustrated Kiev and some European allies in the past, cast a shadow over the US president's otherwise cordial exchange with his Ukrainian counterpart as they spoke to reporters ahead of a private lunch.
Trump said the two leaders would discuss his call with the Russian president the previous day. He portrayed himself as a mediator between the two warring forces, despite the fact that Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
'Come along a little'
“I think President Zelenskiy wants it done, and I think President Putin wants it done too. All they have to do now is get along a little bit,” Trump said.
However, Zelenskiy noted how difficult it has been to achieve a ceasefire. “We want this. Putin doesn't want it,” he said.
The Ukrainian leader was outspoken, telling Trump that Ukraine has thousands of drones ready for an offensive against Russian targets, but needs American missiles.
“We don't have Tomahawks, that's why we need Tomahawks,” he said.
Trump responded: “We would much rather they didn't need Tomahawks.”
Trump later reiterated that he wants the United States to keep its weapons. “We want Tomahawks too. We don't want to give away things that we need to protect our country,” he said.
After the talks, which Zelenskiy described as productive, he told reporters he did not want to discuss long-range missiles, saying the US did not want an escalation.
He said he was counting on Trump to pressure Putin “to stop this war.”
Trump said in a post on Truth Social that the meeting was “cordial” and that “I told him, as I strongly suggested to President Putin, that it is time to stop the killing and make a DEAL!”
BACK TO THE TABLE
It was unclear what Putin had said to Trump that prompted him to agree to the upcoming meeting. Their August summit in Alaska ended prematurely without a major breakthrough.
The Kremlin said much remains to be decided and that the summit could take place “a little later” than the two-week period Trump mentioned.
Trump's conciliatory tone after the phone call with Putin raised questions about the likelihood of aid to Ukraine in the short term and stoked European fears about a deal that suits Moscow. A European Union spokesman said it welcomed the talks if they could help bring peace to Ukraine.
Trump was asked on Friday whether he was concerned that Putin would “play” him ahead of time by agreeing to talks.
“You know, I've been played by the best of them all my life, and I came out really good, so it's possible,” Trump replied.
The president expressed affection for Zelenskiy, at one point praising him for wearing a dark suit jacket after being challenged earlier this year for visiting the White House without one.
“He looks beautiful in his jacket,” Trump said. “I hope people notice… it's actually very stylish.”
THE WAR HAS INTENSIFIED
Trump, who has campaigned for the Nobel Peace Prize, is eager to add to the list of conflicts he says he played a major role in ending.
More than three and a half years after the massive invasion of Ukraine, Russia has made some territorial gains this year, but Ukraine's top military commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Thursday that the Russian offensive had failed.
Putin said this month that his forces had seized nearly 5,000 square kilometers of land in Ukraine by 2025 – equivalent to adding 1% of Ukrainian territory to the nearly 20% already controlled.
Both sides have also escalated attacks on each other's energy systems, and Russian drones and aircraft have entered NATO countries.
ANALYSTS SEE TALKS AS DELAYING TACTICS
The White House appeared increasingly frustrated with Putin in recent days and was leaning toward providing Zelenskiy with new support, including Tomahawk missiles that the Ukrainians say would help them inflict more damage on Russia's war machine.
Several U.S. and Ukrainian officials stressed before Trump's meeting with Zelenskiy that no decision had been made, and opinions varied on how Trump would ultimately decide the issue.
Putin's move appeared designed to make U.S. transfers of such weapons less likely, said Max Bergmann, a Russia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“It appears that Putin's action may be intended to thwart the possible transfer of Tomahawks to Ukraine, so Putin wants to put that back on the shelf,” Bergmann said. “It seems to me to be some kind of delaying tactic.”
Mykola Bielieskov, a senior analyst at Come Back Alive, a Ukrainian nongovernmental organization that is a major buyer of military equipment for the Ukrainian armed forces, said Tomahawk missiles would create a level playing field tilted toward Russia, but they would not be a panacea.
“We do not expect Russia to crumble after one, two or three successful attacks,” Bielieskov said. “But it's about pressure, constant pressure. It's about disrupting the military-industrial complex.”
(Reporting by Jeff Mason, Nandita Bose, Gram Slattery and Trevor Hunnicutt; additional reporting by Olena Harmash in Kiev, 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; written by James Oliphant; editing by Philippa Fletcher, Colleen Jenkins and Rod Nickel)
