A “tense” meeting in which Donald Trump was “hard” in clearly saying that at the moment he has no intention of supplying, at least for now, the Tomahawks to Ukraine.
Axios describes the behind the scenes of the face-to-face meeting between Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky. The meeting ended abruptly after two and a half hours. “I think we’re done. Let’s see what happens next week,” Trump said, referring to his upcoming face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin in Budapest.
Zelensky spoke to Europeans after the meeting and many, Axios reports, appeared perplexed by Trump. During talks between Zelensky and European leaders, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer proposed working with the United States to develop a peace plan for Ukraine, along the lines of Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza, Axios reports, highlighting that NATO Secretary Mark Rutte has proposed an urgent follow-up call among European national security advisers on the weekend.
During the meeting at the White House, Zelesnky pushed hard for the Tomahawks but Trump showed no flexibility.
Trump, ‘the war can end soon without the Tomahawks’
“I think there is an excellent chance that the war can end quickly. Even without Ukraine needing Tomahawk missiles”: Donald Trump is thus freezing the expectations of Volodymr Zelensky in the White House, who has landed in Washington for his third visit this year, already discouraged by the unexpected phone call the previous day between the tycoon and Vladimir Putin with the announcement of a summit in Budapest.
“We will talk about the phone call and also about the Tomahawks”, explains the American president as he receives the Ukrainian leader in the Cabinet Room, and not in the Oval Office, where shortly before he had welcomed Andrea Bocelli while listening to his “Con te partirò” at full volume.
“Zelensky is a strong leader who has been through a lot, it’s an honor to have him here”, began The Donald, also complimenting him on the “beautiful black jacket”, worn in the last two visits after criticism for the previous look not suited to the Oval Office. But then came the tycoon’s umpteenth turn, the one on the Tomahawks. “Giving them to Kiev would be an escalation, and then we need them too, we don’t want to give away things that are needed for our defense”, he put his hands forward. Until two days ago, however, he seemed intent on providing them, so much so that he said he had threatened Putin in their last phone call by asking him: “What do you say if I send 2,000 Tomahawks to Kiev? He didn’t like the idea.” But he probably used long-range missiles as a pressure weapon, achieving another summit with the tsar in a couple of weeks in Budapest after the one in Ancorage, Alaska, which appears to have been stormy. According to what was revealed by the Financial Times, behind the smiles there would have been frost. With Putin taking the stand to give history lessons to demonstrate that “Russia and Ukraine are one nation”, refusing any concessions. And Trump was so irritated that he raised his voice, interrupted the talks and canceled the lunch, then taking a pro-Kiev line.
Now, however, “Putin wants the war to end”, assures The Donald in an optimistic tone, reporting that things “are going quite well”, that “great progress has been made” and that there are “excellent chances” of putting an end to the conflict. He will discuss it with the tsar in Budapest, a city he proposed “because I like Orban”, he explains. Although the choice creates potential problems for the arrival of Putin – pursued by an international criminal court arrest warrant for war crimes – and sounds like a mockery for Kiev, given that the Hungarian capital hosted the signing of the useless 1994 “Budapest Memorandum” between the United States, United Kingdom, Russia and Ukraine to offer security guarantees to Ukraine in exchange for giving up its nuclear weapons. For now, Trump has ruled out a three-way summit with Putin and Zelensky because “there is too much hatred” between the two conflicting leaders.
Zelensky moved well, praised him for peace in the Middle East, hoping that he could also pave the way for peace in Ukraine and did not fall into the trap when a reporter asked him for an opinion on the different approach to the Russian invasion between Trump and Biden. He then expressed his belief that Putin is not ready for peace, but said he trusted the tycoon: “I am confident that with your help we can put an end to the war”https://gazzettadelsud.it/articoli/mondo/2025/10/18/contro-teso-alla-casa-bianca-trump-duro-con-ze lensky-the-war-in-ukraine-can-end-soon-without-the-tomahawks-7695ff8e-7743-40f1-b62a-32dbd32ea03c/.”First we need to sit down and talk. Second, we need the ceasefire. We are ready to talk in any form, bilateral or trilateral”, he explained, reiterating that Ukraine needs security guarantees and, immediately, Tomahawks. “You have the Tomhahawks, we can give you the drones,” he continued, cashing in on Trump’s interest in Kiev’s advanced technology in this field. But maybe he’ll only get the Patriots in return, at least for now. Meanwhile, according to the Financial Times, the EU is proposing to use part of the proposed 140 billion euro loan secured by Russia’s frozen Russian assets to buy US weapons for Ukraine.