File photo of the Ukrainian parliament building in Kyiv.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

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