Volodymyr Zelenskiy arrived at the White House on Friday to plead to Donald Trump for Tomahawk missiles, but the surprise announcement that the US president will meet with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Budapest could dim the Ukrainian leader's chances of securing the long-range weapons.
Friday's meeting with Ukraine's Zelenskiy was scheduled to be a low-key lunch in a cabinet meeting room as opposed to a public gathering in the Oval Office.
Trump announced the summit with Putin on Thursday after a more than two-hour phone conversation with the Russian leader about Russia's war in Ukraine, which he said was productive.
It was unclear what Putin had told Trump that prompted him to agree to the meeting, as their August summit in Alaska ended early with no major breakthrough.
"My whole life, I've made deals," Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday. "I think we're going to have this one done, hopefully soon."
The Kremlin said much needed to be decided and that the summit might take place "a little later" than within the two-week period mentioned by Trump.
Trump's conciliatory tone after the call with Putin raised questions over the near-term likelihood of assistance to Ukraine and reignited European fears of a deal that suits Moscow. A spokesperson for the European Union said it welcomed the talks if they could help bring peace to Ukraine.
WAR HAS INTENSIFIED
The US president, who has campaigned for the Nobel Peace Prize, is eager to add to the list of conflicts he says he has been instrumental in ending.
More than three and a half years after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has ground out some territorial gains this year, but Ukraine's top military commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Thursday that the Russian offensive had failed.
Putin this month said his forces had taken almost 5,000 square kilometres (1,930 square miles) of land in Ukraine in 2025 - equivalent to adding 1% of Ukraine's territory to the nearly 20% already held.
Both sides have also escalated attacks on each other's energy systems, and Russian drones and jets have strayed into NATO countries.
The White House had seemed in recent days to be increasingly frustrated with Putin and leaning toward granting Zelenskiy fresh support, including the Tomahawk missiles that Ukrainians say would help them inflict more damage to Russia's war machine.
"We need them, too," Trump said of the missiles on Thursday in his remarks to reporters after his call with Putin.
Zelenskiy, who has had an up-and-down relationship with Trump, said Putin, who pressed ahead with assaults on Ukraine after meeting with Trump in Alaska, was again playing for time.
"We can already see that Moscow is rushing to resume dialogue as soon as it hears about Tomahawks," he wrote on X.
Ukrainians held out little hope for Zelenskiy's talks with Trump. "We have already gone through this, and we have not seen any tangible results," said Olena Puchilo, 54, a social worker from Mykolaiv, adding that there was still room for miracles.
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