Washington, Oct 18 (UNI) US President Donald Trump today net Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House cabinet room, flanked by Vice-President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio amidst talks of supplying Tomahawk missiles and upcoming meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Budapest, the national capital of Hungary .
Trump said it was an “honour” to be joined by Zelensky and described the Ukrainian president as a “very strong leader” who has “been through a lot”, reports BBC.
Trump said that they will discuss his phone call with Putin yesterday and their planned summit in Hungary.
“I think that things are coming along pretty well,” he continues, saying “we want to see if we can get this done” after “certain guidelines were discussed” at the meeting in Alaska.”
Similarly, Zelensky thanked his hosts and congratulated Trump for the Gaza ceasefire deal.
“I think we can end this war with your help,” Zelensky says. He adds that Russia isn’t having a lot of successes on the battlefield.
During the joint press conference, Trump was asked what he would think about Ukraine using long-range missiles to strike deeper into Russi
To which, he replied that “We’ll be talking about that,. “It’s an escalation, but we’ll be talking about i
Meanwhile, Ukraine is demanding for the US Tomahawk missiles, which are capable of striking targets nearly 2,000km (1,200 miles) away.
Zelensky expressed his belief that “I think we can end the war’ with Trump’s help”.
When Trump was asked about his planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Hungary, the US president praised Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s prime minister and Putin’s closest ally within the European Union, for running his country efficiently unlike others.
When asked if the meeting would include Zelensky. Trump said that is “to be determined” and added there is “bad blood” between Putin and Zelenksy.
“We want to make it comfortable for everybody,” Trump says. “We’ll be involved in threes, but it may be separated.”
“We went through a lot of details,” Trump said of his call. Putin “wants to get it ended. I think that President Zelensky wants to get it ended. Now we have to get it done,” he expressed.
Zelensky said all sides need to sit down and talk to agree to a ceasefire.
He said Ukraine wants peace, but argues that Putin needs to be “pressured” into ending the war.
Zelensky expressed that Ukraine is ready to talk in any format..
To a question whether he would consider giving up his request to join Nato in order to end the war, Zelensky replied that he would consider giving up his request to join Nato in order to end the war.
“The most important thing for people in Ukraine who are under attack is to have security guarantees,” he says.
He continued that he wanted bilateral security guarantees from Trump.
