Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrives at a meeting of the European Political Community in Copenhagen, Denmark, 2 October 2025. Photo: EPA / Thomas Traasdahl
US President Donald Trump has said that he’ll meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Friday, in what is likely to be a final in-person effort by Kyiv to bring Trump around to approving the transfer of vitally needed long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine.
Huddling with reporters on Air Force One on Monday following a triumphant day in Israel during which he addressed the Knesset and oversaw the signing of a deal ending the war in Gaza, a buoyant Trump answered “I think so, yeah”, when asked if he’d be meeting Zelensky in Washington on Friday, AFP reported.
Writing on X on Monday evening, Zelensky confirmed that he would “have the opportunity to come to Washington and meet with President Trump on Friday” to discuss “a series of steps that I intend to propose”, adding that several high-ranking members of his administration, including Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, Defence Minister Rustem Umerov and Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak, had already left for the United States.
As well as his meeting with Trump, members of Congress and representatives of defence companies, Zelensky said that he would be meeting with energy companies, something he described as “President Trump’s proposal”.
“I will meet with these companies because there are pressing needs linked to various formats of attacks, not even the attacks that Russia has already carried out. In any case, we must be prepared. So, it will be helpful,” Zelensky wrote.
Securing Trump’s approval for the provision of US Tomahawk missiles, which would allow the Armed Forces of Ukraine to launch attacks against military targets and energy infrastructure deep inside Russian territory, is seen by Kyiv as an existential necessity without which Ukraine has little realistic prospect of successfully ending the Russian invasion or forcing the Kremlin to the negotiating table.
For weeks, Trump has prevaricated about giving his final go ahead to the transfer, which Putin has warned would signify a “new stage of escalation” in both the war and in Russia-US ties. On Sunday, Trump suggested that he would approve the transfer if the war in Ukraine was not “settled” in the near future.
Trump’s apparent success in achieving at least temporary peace in Gaza may well have whetted his appetite for more, however, with the US president immediately upping the number of wars he claims to have ended since returning to the White House in January from seven to eight on Monday.