Trump-Putin recap: Nightmare for Zelensky just one day ahead of White House meeting
Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post late Thursday morning that he was engaged in a lengthy phone call with Putin as he considers Ukraine's push for long-range missiles.
President Donald Trump has said he will meet Vladimir Putin in Hungary in a bid to end the war, in a development likely to heap pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Mr Trump earlier posted on Truth Social that he was engaged in a lengthy phone call with Putin and would provide an update on what they discussed as soon as it was over, and afterwards hailed what he called a “very productive” conversation.
The call came ahead of Mr Trump’s meeting on Friday at the White House with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has been pressing Trump to sell Kyiv Tomahawk missiles that would allow Ukrainian forces to strike deeper into Russian territory.
Hours earlier Mr Zelensky appealed to Mr Trump to take a firm line, warning: “Putin has turned a deaf ear to everything the world says, so the only language that can still get through to him is the language of pressure.”
Mr Zelensky has argued that such strikes would help compel Putin to take Mr Trump’s calls for direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine to end the war more seriously Mr Trump said Sunday: “Do they want to have Tomahawks going in that direction? I don’t think so,” Mr Trump said on Sunday. “I think I might speak to Russia about that.”
