US President Donald Trump will welcome his Ukrainian counterpart to Washington on Friday for talks about how they can force Russia’s Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table, including the possibility of supplying US-made Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv.
The meeting will be Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s third with the US president at the White House since Trump returned to office in January.
Trump and Zelenskyy held phone calls over the weekend, during which they discussed the possibility of Nato allies buying Tomahawk missiles for Kyiv — a long-range weapon that would extend Ukraine’s strike capability as far as Moscow and beyond — and how to bring an end to Russia’s full-scale war.
Tomahawk missiles have been atop Ukraine’s wish list of weapons since the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
Trump has said that he is considering selling an unspecified number of long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine but that he needs to hear more about how Kyiv plans to use them, two people briefed on the president’s calls told the Financial Times.
Zelenskyy confirmed the upcoming meeting with Trump on Monday evening.
He said he shared with Trump a “vision” of how many Tomahawk missiles Ukraine would need.
A Ukrainian official said Kyiv believed Trump was closer than ever to supplying the missiles but cautioned that the US president was clear that he had not yet come to a decision.
Although Trump and Zelenskyy clashed badly in the Oval Office in February, relations between the two have improved markedly over the summer, as the US president has grown increasingly frustrated with Putin’s refusal to end the war in Ukraine.
People familiar with Trump’s discussions with Zelenskyy said that his about-face stems from growing frustration with Putin.
On Sunday, Trump told reporters the US might send Ukraine Tomahawk missiles if Putin did not come to a settlement.
“I might say: ‘Look, if this war is not going to get settled, I’m going to send them Tomahawks’,” Trump said, adding he wanted to speak to Putin before deciding.
“The Tomahawk is an incredible weapon, very offensive weapon. And honestly, Russia does not need that.”
Putin has previously warned the US against providing Kyiv with Tomahawks, saying it would be a major escalation between Washington and Moscow.
If Trump decided to sell the weapons to Nato allies who would then give them to the Ukraine, it would mark the most significant military support by the US president, and in stark contrast to his previous position.
Since late summer, Trump’s intelligence agencies have quietly aided Ukraine’s long-range drone and missile strikes on Russian energy facilities deep inside Russia, FT reported on Sunday.
Tomahawks are cruise missiles used primarily by the US Navy to attack deeply on land. Fired from ships or submarines, they have a range of up to 2,500km (1,550 miles).
Mark Cancian, a former Pentagon official now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think-tank, estimated in a recent war game that the US had 4,150 Tomahawks in total.
However, the US would probably be able to supply only a few to Ukraine. This is in light of the fact that, out of the 200 the Pentagon has procured since 2022, it has already fired more than 120, according to defence experts. The defence department has requested funding for only 57 more Tomahawks in its 2026 budget.
Washington would probably also need Tomahawks for any strike on Venezuelan soil.
Stacie Pettyjohn, director of the defence programme at the Center for a New American Security think-tank, said Washington could spare some 20 to 50 Tomahawks for Ukraine, “which will not decisively shift the dynamics of the war”.
While the long-range missiles could complement Ukraine’s own long-range attack drones and cruise missiles “in large complex salvos to greater effect”, they would “still will be a very limited capability . . . certainly not enough to enable sustained, deep attacks against Russia”, they added.
The Pentagon declined to comment on how many Tomahawks it has.
In an address to Israel’s parliament on Monday, Trump urged his special envoy Steve Witkoff, who was involved in diplomatic talks both in the Middle East and Russia, to turn his attention to ending the war in Ukraine.
Trump and Zelenskyy last met at the White House in August, following the US president’s summit with Putin in Alaska.
Zelenskyy at the time promised to buy nearly $100bn of American weapons, financed by Europe, in a bid to receive US guarantees for its postwar security, according to a document seen by the FT.
A Ukrainian delegation led by Zelenskyy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak and Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko were en route to Washington on Monday for a week of discussions with US counterparts, beginning on Tuesday.
“We’re heading for high-level talks to strengthen Ukraine’s defence, secure our energy resilience, and intensify sanctions pressure on the aggressor,” Yermak said on X.
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