Zelenskiy to seek weapons from Trump in the shadow of a new Putin summit

Summary

• Trump had expressed frustration with Putin
• New summit plan appears to change that dynamic
• Zelenskiy says Putin is playing for time

Volodymyr Zelenskiy will ask Donald Trump for Tomahawk missiles on Friday but the surprise announcement that the US president will meet with Vladimir Putin in Budapest appeared to dim the Ukrainian president's chance of securing the long-range weapons.

Trump announced the summit after a more than two-hour phone conversation with Putin about Russia's war in Ukraine on Thursday, 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. "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.

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

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 US 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 earlier 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 US 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 US-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".