U.S. President Donald Trump suggested on Friday (October 17, 2025) it would be premature to give Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, saying as he hosted Volodymyr Zelenskyy that he hoped to secure peace with Russia first.

“Hopefully they won’t need it. Hopefully we’ll be able to get the war over with without thinking about Tomahawks,” Mr. Trump told journalists including an AFP reporter as the two leaders met at the White House.

Mr. Trump added that he was confident of getting Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the invasion he launched in 2022, following a phone call with the Kremlin chief a day earlier.

The U.S. and Russian presidents agreed on Thursday to a new summit in the Hungarian capital Budapest, which would be their first since an August meeting in Alaska that failed to produce any kind of peace deal.

“I think that President Putin wants to end the war,” Mr. Trump said.

But Mr. Zelenskyy, who wore a dark suit for his third meeting with Mr. Trump in Washington since the U.S. president’s return to power, demurred, saying that Putin was “not ready” for peace.

Ukraine has been lobbying Washington for Tomahawks for weeks, arguing that the missiles could help put pressure on Russia to end its brutal three-and-a-half year invasion.

But on the eve of Zelensky’s visit, Mr. Putin warned Mr. Trump in a call against delivering the weapons, saying it could escalate the war and jeopardize peace talks.

Mr. Trump said the United States had to be careful to not “deplete” its own supplies of Tomahawks, which have a range of over 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles).

‘Many questions’

Diplomatic talks on ending Russia’s invasion have stalled since the Alaska summit.

But Mr. Trump, who once said he could end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours, appears set on pursuing a breakthrough to follow the Gaza ceasefire deal that he brokered last week.

The Kremlin said on Friday that “many questions” needed resolving before Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump could meet, including who would be on each negotiating team.

But it brushed off suggestions Mr. Putin would have difficulty flying over European airspace.

Hungary said it would ensure Mr. Putin could enter and “hold successful talks” with the U.S. despite an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant against him for alleged war crimes.

“Budapest is the only suitable place in Europe for a USA-Russia peace summit,” Hungarian President Viktor Orban said on X on Friday.

Trump frustration

Zelenskyy’s visit to Washington, Ukraine’s main military backer, will be his third since Mr. Trump returned to office.

During this time, Mr. Trump’s position on the Ukraine war has shifted dramatically back and forth.

At the start of his term, Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin reached out to each other as the U.S. leader derided Zelenskyy as a “dictator without elections.”

Tensions came to a head in February, when Mr. Trump accused his Ukrainian counterpart of “not having the cards” in a rancorous televised meeting at the Oval Office.

Relations between the two have since warmed as Mr. Trump has expressed growing frustration with Mr. Putin.

But Mr. Trump has kept a channel of dialogue open with Mr. Putin, saying that they “get along.”

The U.S. leader has repeatedly changed his position on sanctions and other steps against Russia following calls with the Russian president.

Mr. Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, describing it as a “special military operation” to demilitarize the country and prevent the expansion of NATO.

Kyiv and its European allies say the war is an illegal land grab that has resulted in tens of thousands of civilian and military casualties and widespread destruction.

Russia now occupies around a fifth of Ukrainian territory — much of it ravaged by fighting. On Friday the Russian defense ministry announced it had captured three villages in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions.

Published – October 17, 2025 11:12 pm IST

The Kremlin countered that the Russian economy was stable, despite problems in some sectors caused by sanctions
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File picture of U.S. President Donald Trump with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House
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Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, seated from background left, France’s President Emmanuel Macron and President Donald Trump listen during a meeting in the East Room of the White House on August 18, 2025, in Washington.
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French President Emmanuel Macron speaks with the media after a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and European leaders, amid negotiations to end the Russian war in Ukraine, at French Ambassador’s residence in Washington, D.C., U.S., on August 18, 2025.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin during theira meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on August 18, 2025.
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President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump expressed hope that Monday’s (August 18, 2025) critical talks with Ukrainian and European leaders at the White House could lead to trilateral talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin to bring an end to Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The U.S. President also said he would back European security guarantees for Ukraine.

Mr. Trump stopped short of committing U.S. troops to the effort, saying instead that there would be a “NATO-like” security presence but that all those details would be hashed out in their afternoon meeting with EU leaders.

Follow Trump-Zelenskyy meeting in Washington LIVE updates here

“They want to give protection and they feel very strongly about it and we’ll help them out with that,” Mr. Trump said. “I think its very important to get the deal done.”

Monday’s hastily assembled meeting comes after Mr. Trump met on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has said that the onus is now on Mr. Zelenskyy to agree to concessions that he said could end the war.

“If everything works out today, we’ll have a trilat,” Mr. Trump said, referring to possible three-way talks among Mr. Zelenskyy, Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump. “We’re going to work with Russia, we’re going to work with Ukraine.” Mr. Trump also said he plans to talk to Putin after his meetings with Mr. Zelenskyy and European leaders.

Mr. Zelenskyy also expressed openness to trilateral talks.

“We are ready for trilateral as president said,” Mr. Zelenskyy said at the start of his meeting with Mr. Trump. “It’s a good signal about trilateral. I think this is very good.”

Mr. Trump is first holding one-on-one talks with Mr. Zelenskyy. The two are then scheduled to gather with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.

The European leaders were left out of Mr. Trump’s summit with Mr. Putin. They want to safeguard Ukraine and the continent from any widening aggression from Moscow. Many arrived at the White House with the explicit goal of protecting Ukraine’s interests — a rare show of diplomatic force.

By coming as a group, they hope to avoid debacles like Mr. Zelenskyy’s February meeting in the Oval Office, where Mr. Trump chastised him for not showing enough gratitude for U.S. military aid. Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelenskyy were due to meet in the Oval Office before European leaders join them in the East Room for talks.

The meetings are also a test of America’s relationship with its closest allies after the European Union and United Kingdom accepted Mr. Trump’s tariff hikes partly because they wanted his support on Ukraine.

“We understand that we shouldn’t expect Putin to voluntarily abandon aggression and new attempts at conquest,” Mr. Zelenskyy said in an X posting before arriving at the White House. “That is why pressure must work, and it must be joint pressure – from the United States and Europe, and from everyone in the world who respects the right to life and the international order.”

Ahead of the meeting, however, Mr. Trump suggested that Ukraine could not regain Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, setting off an armed conflict that led to its broader 2022 invasion.

“President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,” Mr. Trump wrote on Sunday night on social media. “Remember how it started. No getting back Obama given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!), and NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE. Some things never change!!!”

Mr. Zelenskyy appeared to respond with his own post late Sunday, saying, “We all share a strong desire to end this war quickly and reliably.” He said that “peace must be lasting,” not as it was after Russia seized Crimea and part of the Donbas in eastern Ukraine eight years ago, and “Putin simply used it as a springboard for a new attack.”

Mr. Trump’s sitdown in Alaska with Putin yielded the possible contours for stopping the war in Ukraine, though it was unclear whether the terms discussed would ultimately be acceptable to Mr. Zelenskyy or Mr. Putin.

Mr. Zelenskyy said in a social media post he met with Mr. Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, on Monday ahead of his scheduled talks with Mr. Trump to discuss the battlefield situation and the shared “strong diplomatic capabilities” of the U.S., Ukraine and Europe. He also held talks with European leaders at the Ukrainian embassy in Washington.

European heavyweights in Washington

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte arrived at the White House ahead of Mr. Zelenskyy’s arrival.

On the table for discussion are possible NATO-like security guarantees that Ukraine would need for any peace with Russia to be durable. Putin opposes Ukraine joining NATO outright, yet Mr. Trump’s team claims the Russian leader is open to allies agreeing to defend Ukraine if it comes under attack.

”Clearly there are no easy solutions when talking about ending a war and building peace,” Ms. Meloni told reporters. “We have to explore all possible solutions to guarantee peace, to guarantee justice, and to guarantee security for our countries.”

The European leaders are aiming to keep the focus during the White House talks on finding a sustainable peace and believe forging a temporary ceasefire is not off the table, according to a European official.

The official, who was not authorised to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the leaders are also looking to keep pressure on Russia to end the fighting and want to get more concrete assurances from the U.S. about security guarantees for Ukraine as part of any deal.

Mr. Trump briefed Mr. Zelenskyy and European allies shortly after the Putin meeting. Details from the discussions emerged in a scattershot way that seemed to rankle the U.S. President, who had chosen not to outline any terms when appearing afterward with Mr. Putin.

Ahead of Monday’s White House meetings, Mr. Trump took to social media to say that even if Russia said, “We give up, we concede, we surrender” the news media and Democrats “would say that this was a bad and humiliating day for Donald J. Trump.”

He separately lashed out at the Wall Street Journal and other outlets “who truly don’t have a clue, tell me everything that I am doing wrong on the Russia/Ukraine MESS.”

Following the Alaska summit, Mr. Trump declared that a ceasefire was not necessary for peace talks to proceed, a sudden shift to a position favoured by Mr. Putin.

‘A very big move’

European officials confirmed that Mr. Trump told them Mr. Putin is still seeking control of the entire Donbas region, even though Ukraine controls a meaningful share of it.

Mr. Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, said the U.S. and its allies could offer Ukraine a NATO-like commitment to defend the country if it came under attack as the possible security guarantee, with details to be worked out.

Monday’s meeting will likely be very tough for Mr. Zelenskyy, an official close to the ongoing talks said. That official spoke on condition of anonymity to speak openly about thinking within Ukraine and between allies.

Mr. Zelenskyy needs to prevent a scenario in which he gets blamed for blocking peace talks by rejecting Mr. Putin’s maximalist demand on the Donbas, the official said. It is a demand Mr. Zelenskyy has said many times he will never accept because it is unconstitutional and could create a launching pad for future Russian attacks.

If confronted with pressure to accept Mr. Putin’s demands, Mr. Zelenskyy would likely have to revert to a skill he has demonstrated time and again: diplomatic tact. The Ukrainian leadership is seeking a trilateral meeting with Mr. Zelenskyy, Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin to discuss sensitive matters, including territorial issues.

Mr. Putin spoke with the leaders of India, Brazil and South Africa Monday to discuss his meeting with Mr. Trump in Alaska, the Kremlin said.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a media conference at EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, Sunday, August 17, 2025.
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