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Trump Wavers on Missiles to Kyiv 10/17 06:03
President Donald Trump is set to host Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelenskyy for talks at the White House on Friday, with the U.S. leader
signaling he's not ready to agree to sell Kyiv a long-range missile system that
the Ukrainians say they desperately need.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump is set to host Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy for talks at the White House on Friday, with the U.S.
leader signaling he's not ready to agree to sell Kyiv a long-range missile
system that the Ukrainians say they desperately need.
Zelenskyy gets his one-on-one with Trump a day after the U.S. president and
Russian President Vladimir Putin held a lengthy phone call to discuss the
conflict.
In recent days, Trump had shown openness to selling Ukraine long-range
Tomahawk cruise missiles, even as Putin warned that such a move would further
strain the U.S.-Russian relationship.
But following Thursday's call with Putin, Trump appeared to downplay the
prospects of Ukraine getting the missiles, which have a range of about 995
miles (1,600 kilometers.)
"We need Tomahawks for the United States of America too," Trump said. "We
have a lot of them, but we need them. I mean we can't deplete our country."
Zelenskyy had been seeking the weapons that would allow Ukrainian forces to
strike deep into Russian territory and target key military sites, energy
facilities and critical infrastructure. Zelenskyy has argued such strikes would
help compel Putin to take Trump's calls for direct negotiations to end the war
more seriously.
But Putin warned Trump during the call that supplying Kyiv with the
Tomahawks "won't change the situation on the battlefield, but would cause
substantial damage to the relationship between our countries," according to
Yuri Ushakov, Putin's foreign policy adviser.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said that talk of providing
Tomahawks had already served a purpose by pushing Putin into talks. "The
conclusion is that we need to continue with strong steps. Strength can truly
create momentum for peace," Sybiha said on the social platform X late Thursday.
It will be the fourth face-to-face meeting for Trump and Zelenskyy since the
Republican returned to office in January, and their second in less than a month.
Trump announced following Thursday's call with Putin that he would soon meet
with the Russian leader in Budapest, Hungary, to discuss ways to end the war.
The two also agreed that their senior aides, including Secretary of State Marco
Rubio, would meet next week at an unspecified location.
Fresh off brokering a ceasefire and hostage agreement between Israel and
Hamas, Trump has said finding an endgame to the war in Ukraine is now his top
foreign policy priority and has expressed new confidence about the prospects of
getting it done.
Ahead of his call with Putin, Trump had shown signs of increased frustration
with the Russian leader.
Last month, he announced that he believed Ukraine could win back all
territory lost to Russia, a dramatic shift from the U.S. leader's repeated
calls for Kyiv to make concessions to end the war.
Trump, going back to his 2024 campaign, insisted he would quickly end the
war, but his peace efforts appeared to stall following a diplomatic blitz in
August, when he held a summit with Putin in Alaska and a White House meeting
with Zelenskyy and European allies.
Trump emerged from those meetings certain he was on track to arranging
direct talks between Zelenskyy and Putin. But the Russian leader hasn't shown
any interest in meeting with Zelenskyy and Moscow has only intensified its
bombardment of Ukraine.
Trump, for his part, offered a notably more neutral tone about Ukraine
following what he described a "very productive" call with Putin.
He also hinted that negotiations between Putin and Zelenskyy might be have
to be conducted indirectly.
"They don't get along too well those two," Trump said. "So we may do
something where we're separate. Separate but equal."
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