WASHINGTON – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to meet with President Donald Trump at the White House on Friday, according to an administration official, a Western official and a Ukrainian embassy spokesman.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, Olga Stefanishyna, confirmed that Trump invited Zelenskyy to a meeting this week, Ukrainian embassy spokeswoman Halyna Yusypiuk said.
The visit, previously reported by the Financial Times, comes as Trump said the United States is considering approving Tomahawk missiles for Ukraine, adding that they would be “a new step of aggression” in that country’s war against Russia. If the administration were to provide long-range missiles, it would mark a new level of American support for Ukraine in the war.
“Maybe not, but we can do it,” Trump said on Air Force One on Monday. “I think it’s appropriate to mention…yes, I want to. I want the war to be resolved.”
Trump also said he and Zelenskyy discussed the possibility of Ukraine obtaining Tomahawks over the phone over the weekend.
“We’ll see,” Trump said.
In theory, Ukraine could use long-range Tomahawk missiles to strike inside Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the United States against supplying weapons, saying earlier this month that it would mark a “qualitatively new stage of escalation, including in relations between Russia and the United States.”
Dmitry Medvedev, a senior Russian official and the country’s former president and prime minister, also said the Tomahawk missile launch “could end badly for everyone, and first of all, for Trump himself.”
Zelenskyy’s visit on Friday comes on the heels of Trump’s trip to the Middle East, where he was praised for his role in championing a peace deal that led to the release of the remaining living hostages by Hamas and the release of Palestinian prisoners by Israel.
Andriy Yermak, head of Zelenskyy’s office, said in a post to X on Monday that Ukrainian officials were on their way to Washington for “high-level talks.” Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko and senior national security official Rustem Umerov are part of the delegation, he said.
The talks were aimed at “strengthening Ukraine’s defense, ensuring our energy resilience and intensifying sanctions pressure on the aggressor,” Yermak said in the post.
Zelenskyy last visited the White House in mid-August, a few days after Trump met with Putin in Alaska. Zelenskyy was joined by a group of prominent European leaders, who acted as diplomatic backup after a tense Oval Office meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy in February.
Last week, first lady Melania Trump said she has an “open channel of communication” with President Vladimir Putin about the “welfare” of Ukrainian children believed to have been kidnapped and taken to Russia. The first lady wrote a letter to Putin in August, when the presidents of the United States and Russia met in Alaska. In the letter, he asked Putin to protect “the innocence of these children.”
During the 2024 campaign, Trump repeatedly claimed that he could end the war in Ukraine quickly, even within 24 hours. But during his first months in office, he said that while he originally thought the war in Ukraine might be the “easiest” to end, Putin “disappointed me.”
