Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his reportedly tense meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump last week was “positive,” even though he did not secure Tomahawk missiles for the fight against Russia.

In comments to journalists on Sunday (October 20, 2025) and embargoed until Monday (October 21) morning, Mr. Zelenskyy asserted that Mr. Trump reneged on the possibility of sending the long-range missiles to Ukraine after speaking by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin hours before Friday’s meeting.

Mr. Trump on Friday called on Kyiv and Moscow to “stop where they are” and end the war.

“In my opinion, he does not want an escalation with the Russians until he meets with them,” Mr. Zelenskyy said.

According to Mr. Zelenskyy, Mr. Trump said during their meeting that Mr. Putin’s maximalist demand — that Ukraine cede the entirety of its eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions — was unchanged.

Mr. Zelenskyy expressed skepticism about Mr. Putin’s proposal to swap some territory it holds in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions if Ukraine surrenders Donetsk and Luhansk, saying the proposal was unclear.

Ukraine’s leader said Mr. Trump ultimately supported a freeze along the current front line.

“We share President Trump’s positive outlook if it leads to the end of the war,” Mr. Zelenskyy said, citing “many rounds of discussion over more than two hours with him and his team.” Mr. Zelenskyy was diplomatic about his meeting with Mr. Trump despite reports that he faced pressure to accept Putin’s demands. The meeting followed the disastrous Oval Office spat on Feb. 28 when the Ukrainian president was scolded on live television for not being grateful for continued US support.

Later on Monday, Mr. Trump told reporters that Ukraine could still win the war. “I don’t think they will. They could still win it. I never said they would win it,” he said. “Anything can happen, you know war is a very strange thing.” Mr. Zelenskyy said he hopes that Trump’s meeting in the coming weeks with Putin in Hungary — which does not support Ukraine — will pave the way for a peace deal. Their first summit of Trump’s current term was in Alaska in August.

Mr. Zelenskyy said he has not been invited to attend but would consider it if the format for talks were fair to Kyiv.

He also took a stab at Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, saying he does not believe that a prime minister “who blocks Ukraine everywhere can do anything positive for Ukrainians or even provide a balanced contribution.” Mr. Zelenskyy said he thinks that all parties have “moved closer” to a possible end to the war.

“That doesn’t mean it will definitely end, but President Trump has achieved a lot in the Middle East, and riding that wave he wants to end Russia’s war against Ukraine,” he added.

Ukraine is hoping to purchase 25 Patriot air defence systems from US firms using frozen Russian assets and assistance from partners, but Mr. Zelenskyy said procuring all would require time because of long production waits. He said he spoke to Mr. Trump about help procuring them more quickly, potentially from European partners.

Mr. Zelenskyy said the United States is interested in bilateral gas projects with Ukraine, including the construction of an LNG terminal in the southern port city of Odesa. Other projects of interest include those related to nuclear energy and oil.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday urged allies against appeasing Russia, in a statement after he returned from a trip to the U.S. where he failed to secure long-range Tomahawk missile supplies.

Mr. Zelenskyy came to Washington after weeks of calls for Tomahawks, hoping to capitalise on U.S. President Donald Trump’s growing frustration with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin after a summit in Alaska failed to produce a breakthrough.

But the Ukrainian leader left empty-handed as Mr. Trump eyes a fresh diplomatic breakthrough on the back of last week’s Gaza peace deal.

“Ukraine will never grant terrorists any bounty for their crimes, and we count on our partners to uphold this very position,” Mr. Zelenskyy wrote on social media on his return from Washington.

He called “for decisive steps” from European and American allies, adding that it was time for another meeting between the European-led “coalition of the willing”.

Mr. Trump has appeared far more upbeat about the prospects of a deal since a lengthy call Thursday with Putin, in which they agreed to meet soon in Budapest.

After meeting with Mr. Zelenskyy at the White House, Mr. Trump said on social media the talks were “very interesting, and cordial, but I told him, as I likewise strongly suggested to President Putin, that it is time to stop the killing, and make a DEAL!”

Meanwhile, Moscow has stepped up attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure in recent weeks, leaving thousands without heating and light as the cold winter draws nearer.

“This week alone, Russia has used more than 3,270 attack drones, 1,370 guided aerial bombs, and nearly 50 missiles of various types against Ukraine,” Mr. Zelenskyy said.

Most recently on Sunday, two persons were killed and more than a dozen wounded across Ukraine’s east, Kyiv said.

In return, Ukraine intensified its strikes on Russian western border regions, as well as its oil and gas facilities.

On Sunday, a drone strike forced a Gazprom gas plant in Russia’s Orenburg region to stop refining gas from neighbouring Kazakhstan’s large oil and gas field, Kazakh authorities said.

Western oil and gas companies such as Shell, Eni, and Chevron own a majority stake in the Karachaganak field, gas from which is mostly refined at the Russian plant.

The Russian army on Sunday claimed to have captured two villages in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions, as it slowly grinds through in costly metre-for-metre battles.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy Keith Kellogg has floated the possibility of long-range strikes by Ukraine against Russia with American weapons, following the administration’s recent pivot on the conflict.

In a Fox News interview broadcast on Sunday (September 28, 2025), Mr. Kellogg was asked whether Mr. Trump had authorised strikes deep into Russian territory — days after Moscow was accused of sending fighter jets and drones that violated the airspace of several European nations.

“Reading what [Trump] has said and reading what Vice President [J.D.] Vance has said, as well as [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio, the answer is yes,” he said.

“Use the ability to hit deep. There are no such things as sanctuaries.”

Vice President Vance said in a separate Fox News program on Sunday the U.S. was having “conversations” on whether to give long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Kyiv, a request Mr. Trump has previously denied.

“It’s something that the president is going to make the final determination on,” Mr. Vance said, referring to the missiles, adding that the U.S. was “looking at a number of requests from the Europeans.”

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in a press briefing on Monday that there was “no panacea that can change the situation on the front for the Kyiv regime.”

“There’s no magic weapon. Whether it’s Tomahawks or other missiles, they won’t be able to change the dynamic.”

Mr. Trump said last week after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Kyiv was in a position, with the European Union’s help, to fight and win “all of Ukraine back in its original form.”

Russia annexed the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula of Crimea after an operation in 2014 and now controls regions in eastern and southern Ukraine following Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

It marks a shift on Ukraine for Mr. Trump, who told Mr. Zelenskyy during a televised Oval Office bust-up in February that “you don’t have the cards” to beat Russia.

Russia has vowed to press on with its offensive in the three-and-a-half-year-long conflict, with the Kremlin recently dismissing Mr. Trump’s claim that the country was a “paper tiger” with a floundering economy.

The Kremlin on Wednesday (September 24, 2025) rejected the central arguments for United States President Donald Trump’s rhetorical U-turn on the war in Ukraine, as nationalists and political insiders reacted with a mixture of defiance and mockery. Trump on Tuesday said he believed Ukraine could retake all its land controlled by Russia and that Kyiv should act now with Moscow facing “big” economic problems, in a sudden and striking rhetorical shift in Ukraine’s favour.

The Kremlin countered that the Russian economy was stable, despite some problems caused by sanctions, and that Russian forces’ slow but steady advance in Ukraine was part of a deliberate strategy, with Kyiv, not Moscow, on the back foot.

“As far as we understand, President Trump’s statements were made after communicating with (Ukrainian President) Zelenskyy and, apparently, under the influence of a vision set out by Zelenskyy. This vision contrasts sharply with our understanding of the current state of affairs,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“The fact that Ukraine is being encouraged in every possible way to continue hostilities and the argument that Ukraine can win something back is, in our view, a mistaken argument… The dynamics on the front lines speak for themselves,” he said.

Though Russia has continued to grind forwards in many areas, it has not made a major breakthrough in Ukraine for some time.

Russia rejects Trump’s ‘paper tiger’ comment

“Russia is not a tiger but is more associated with a bear,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with the RBC radio station, after Trump called Russia a “paper tiger.”

“Paper bears don’t exist.” Though angered by what they saw as Trump’s insulting rhetoric, Russian nationalists and political insiders interpreted his flip-flop as a sign that he was washing his hands of the war in Ukraine after his unsuccessful and unrealistic attempts to broker a quick peace deal.

They noted that he had not promised any more U.S. help to Kyiv, but rather placed the onus squarely on Ukraine itself and the European Union.

“Yes, Trump suddenly told the world about his love for Ukraine. He hoped it would ‘regain the territories it had in 1991 and, who knows, maybe even go further,” said Konstantin Malofeyev, an ultra-nationalist tycoon and political influencer.

“But the main point… is that the U.S. is washing its hands of the matter. The European Union will pay for everything. To put it even more simply: Trump has sent Ukraine to fight against Russia alongside Europe while buying weapons from the U.S.”

Foreign Minister to set out Russia’s stance

Mr. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, acknowledged the shift in Trump’s rhetoric in favour of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whom Trump met on Tuesday (September 23), but said that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would hold talks with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio later on Wednesday (September 24) and set out Russia’s stance.

Mr. Peskov said there were no problems with macro-economic stability and rejected Trump’s criticism of the Russian military after the U.S. President said Moscow had been fighting “aimlessly” in Ukraine.

Russia’s incremental advances in Ukraine were the result of what he called a well thought-out strategy.

“We are going forward very carefully to minimise losses and so as not to destroy our offensive potential,” said Mr. Peskov.

Dmitry Rogozin, a senator who has fought in Ukraine, said Trump was trying to stir up trouble.

“His rhetoric is so undignified that it is difficult to imagine someone like him still in office as president of a great power,” Mr. Rogozin wrote on Telegram.

Margarita Simonyan, one of Russia’s top state media executives, likened Mr. Trump to a tarot card reader promising his client—Ukraine— the impossible when he spoke of Kyiv being able to retake territory.

“Trump debuts as the tarot card reader telling the thrice-divorced lady that she is going to meet that billionaire prince after all, as long as she buys the magic crystals,” Ms. Simonyan wrote on X.

Dismissing United States President Donald Trump’s criticism that India and China are the “primary funders” of the Ukraine war through purchases of Russian oil, Beijing on Wednesday (September 24, 2025) pointed out that America and the European Union (EU) are also engaging in trade with Moscow.

Addressing a media briefing in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, warned that Beijing will take countermeasures to safeguard its interests if its companies’ normal trade with Russia is obstructed, as he rejected Mr. Trump’s criticism.

“An overwhelming number of countries, including the U.S. and E.U., are engaging in trade with Russia,” he said, reminding the American leader that Washington too is indulging in trade with Moscow.

Chinese and Russian companies’ normal exchanges and cooperation are in line with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules and market principles, Mr. Guo said, adding that Beijing’s actions are not targeted against any third party and “should not be interfered with and influenced”.

He also reiterated that China has always maintained an “objective and just position” on the Ukraine crisis and consistently called for peace talks. “China will take all necessary measures to safeguard its rights and interests,” the spokesperson said.

In his address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday (September 23), Mr. Trump accused China and India of being the “primary funders” of the ongoing Ukraine war by continuing to purchase Russian oil.

He also criticised the E.U. for its continued imports of Russian energy but was conspicuously silent on Washington’s own trade with Moscow.

“Inexcusably, even NATO countries have not cut off much Russian energy and Russian energy products… Think of it, they’re funding the war against themselves,” Mr. Trump said, adding that he was not happy about it when he found this out.

The Trump administration has imposed an additional 25% tariff on India as a penalty for its purchases of Russian oil, taking the total levies imposed on the country by the U.S. to 50%, among the highest in the world.

Last month, India also pointed out that both the U.S. and the EU.. are continuing their trade relations with Russia.

“Unlike our case, such trade is not even a vital national compulsion,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had said.

While the Europe-Russia trade includes energy, fertilisers, mining products, chemicals, iron and steel, and machinery and transport equipment, the U.S. continues to import from Russia uranium hexafluoride for its nuclear industry, palladium for its EV industry, fertilisers, as well as chemicals, it said.