Missiles Declined

President Trump declined to provide Ukraine with long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles during a meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky at the White House on Friday.

Context

Ukraine has been seeking Tomahawk missiles as part of its strategy to strike Russian targets deep inside Russian territory, particularly oil and energy facilities. The weapons have a range far beyond the capabilities of any Western munitions currently supplied to Ukraine.

Trump had previously met with Russian President Putin at a summit in Alaska in August, where he expected to broker a peace deal. Instead, Putin rejected Trump's proposal outright and delivered a lengthy historical lecture spanning medieval princes and Cossack chieftains to support his claim that Ukraine and Russia are one nation. Trump ultimately cut the meeting short. The failed summit marked a low point in the Trump-Putin relationship and prompted a shift in US policy toward supporting Ukraine.

Meeting Details

The Friday meeting descended multiple times into a “shouting match,” with Trump cursing repeatedly and throwing aside maps of Ukraine's frontline, people familiar with the matter told outlets. Trump told Zelensky that Putin had said he would “destroy” Ukraine if it did not agree to Russia’s terms, and insisted that Zelensky surrender the entire Donbas region to Russia.

Trump also said he was "sick" of seeing maps of Ukraine's frontline, stating, “This red line, I don't even know where this is. I've never been there.” The US president appeared to adopt many of Putin's talking points verbatim, including calling the conflict a “special operation, not even a war” and claiming Russia's economy is “doing great,” contradicting his own recent public statements.

Zelensky Leaves Empty-Handed

Despite hopes of securing Tomahawk missiles, Zelensky left the meeting without the weapons or significant new commitments. “Zelensky was very negative” following the meeting, a European official briefed on the discussions told outlets. The encounter echoed a similarly fractious White House meeting in February when Trump and Vice President JD Vance lambasted Zelensky for what they characterized as a lack of gratitude toward the US.

Upcoming Putin Meeting

Trump plans to meet Putin separately in Budapest in the coming weeks, describing it as a “double meeting” where he would see Putin and Zelensky individually but not together. 

Some European officials worry the Budapest summit could repeat the failures of Alaska, where Putin rejected any compromise and insisted on Ukraine's capitulation. Russia has warned that providing Tomahawks would be a serious escalation and has demanded that any ceasefire be on its terms, including no NATO membership for Ukraine and international recognition of its territorial claims.