WASHINGTON - U.S President Donald Trump discussed the possible supply of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy yesterday, but the surprise announcement of a new US-Russian summit cast doubt over the prospect.
Trump said on Thursday he may meet Russian President Vladimir Putin within the next two weeks in Budapest .
“My whole life, I’ve made deals,” Trump told reporters later at the White House. “I think we’re going to have this one done, hopefully soon.”
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he would brief Zelenskyy on the Russia talks in the Oval Office on Friday.
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 US capitulation to Moscow.
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.
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 per cent of Ukraine’s territory to the nearly 20 per cent 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 leaning toward granting Zelenskyy fresh support and increasingly frustrated with Putin.
The new meeting, which Trump said would likely occur in the next two weeks, follows his consideration of providing Ukraine with long-range Tomahawks missiles.
“We need them, too,” Trump said of the missiles on Thursday in his remarks to reporters after his call with Putin.
The weapons are widely seen in Ukraine as a gamechanger that would help it escalate attacks on Russian energy systems far from the border that have already caused significant damage.
Zelenskyy, 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 in August, was again playing for time.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. (Pic: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)