Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet Donald Trump at the White House, after the US president suggested he could allow Kyiv to receive long-range Tomahawk missiles if Russia doesn’t end its war against Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters in Kyiv on October 13, Zelenskyy said he would meet Trump in Washington on October 17, where the two leaders are set to discuss air defense and Ukraine's "long-range capabilities."
Answering a question about Tomahawk missiles, a matter that was raised during the leaders' two phone calls over the weekend, Zelenskyy said it was too early to share details, adding that the issue was one to be discussed in person.
"I shared our vision with President Trump, but some things are not for phone calls, so we will meet," he added.
Here Is What Tomahawk Missiles Could Do For Ukraine
The White House has not yet confirmed whether the meeting will take place. However, Trump confirmed that he discussed the missiles in a second call in two days with Zelenskyy on October 12.
“[Ukraine] would like to have Tomahawks. That's a step up," he told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to the Middle East for a Gaza peace conference.
"Yeah, I might tell [Putin] if the war is not settled, we may very well do it,” he said.
"We may not, but we may do it.… Do they want to have Tomahawks going in their direction? I don’t think so," Trump added.
Tomahawk missiles have a range of 2,500 kilometers, capable of hitting deep inside Russia, including the capital, Moscow.
Washington would not sell the missiles directly to Kyiv, but instead would offer them to NATO states, which could pay for and send them on to Ukraine, as part of an earlier announced program.
Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier warned that such deliveries would represent a “completely new stage of escalation” between Washington and Moscow.
Still, he claimed they would not pose a major threat to the country.
“Can Tomahawks harm us? They can. But we will shoot them down and improve our air defense system,” Putin said.
Zelenskyy said "signals" from Moscow indicated fear among the Russian leadership and that Tomahawks could strengthen Kyiv's position in peace talks.
Trump last week said he was waiting to hear what Ukraine would do with such long-range missiles before making a decision.
The Ukrainian president said his forces would only target military assets should it be supplied with Tomahawks and not strike civilian sites inside Russia.
"We've never attacked their civilians. This is the big difference between Ukraine and Russia," Zelenskyy said in an interview broadcast on Fox News.
"That's why, if we speak about long-range [missiles], we speak only about military goals."
