President Trump said he hoped Ukraine wouldn’t need the U.S. to provide it with long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles as he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Friday.
“We’re going to be talking about Tomahawks, and would much rather have them not need Tomahawks,” said Trump. “Would much rather have the war be over, to be honest.”
“I think President Zelensky wants it done, and I think President Putin wants it done now,” he added.
Trump’s meeting with Zelensky represented the latest step in his renewed bid to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, following on the heels of his diplomatic breakthrough in the Middle East to halt the fighting in the Israel-Hamas war.
Trump has in recent weeks openly mused about sending Ukraine long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles as he soured on Russian President Vladimir Putin over his refusal to negotiate an end to the conflict. Trump and Putin spoke at length by telephone on Thursday.
After meeting with Zelensky, Trump said he planned to meet Putin separately in Hungary in the coming weeks in a bid to broker a peace deal that has long eluded him. Trump on the presidential campaign trail boasted he could end the Russia-Ukraine war on “day one” but his past efforts have run aground.
Tomahawk cruise missiles have a range of more than 1,000 miles and could reach targets deep into Russia and far beyond the capacity of Western munitions that have been provided to Kyiv so far. Russian officials have warned that the delivery of Tomahawk missiles would mark a significant escalation.
The Trump administration has in recent months expanded intelligence sharing with Ukraine to strike targets inside Russia and slapped steep tariffs on one of Russia’s top trading partners, India. Earlier this month, the Trump administration also sanctioned Serbia’s largest oil and gas supplier, which is majority owned by Russian state energy giant Gazprom.
But Trump has yet to issue new economic sanctions on Russia’s energy or financial sectors despite repeated urgings from senior European and Ukrainian officials.
In Congress, U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are pushing for action. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) on Thursday said he was ready to take up long-stalled sanctions legislation on Russia that would impose secondary sanctions on companies that support Russian energy production and steep tariffs on countries that import Russian energy.
“I think the time is right,” Thune said. “I’m hoping we can get it scheduled.”
Friday’s meeting marked the third time Zelensky has visited the White House since Trump took office. The two leaders greeted each other warmly, and Trump complimented Zelensky on his “beautiful” black suit jacket.
It was a stark shift from Zelensky’s first meeting with Trump and Vice President JD Vance, when the Ukrainian president was chastised in front of reporters and cameras for not showing the U.S. enough gratitude for its support.
