US President Donald Trump will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Friday, October 17, a senior Ukrainian official confirmed to Politico.
The meeting comes a day after the two leaders discussed the possibility of Kiev acquiring Tomahawk missiles for more powerful strikes inside Russian territory. The US president has previously rejected the idea, expressing concern about the potential escalation of the three-and-a-half-year war.
Relations between Trump and Zelensky have improved significantly since a tense Oval Office meeting in February, when Trump and Vice President James David Vance publicly criticized the Ukrainian leader for what they said was insufficient gratitude to the US for its support for Ukraine.
Trump, meanwhile, has abandoned his previous strategy of appeasing Russian President Vladimir Putin in order to achieve negotiations, and in a post on the Social Truth platform in September said that Ukraine could regain its territory, describing Russia as a “paper tiger.” In the same post, he directly called Russia an aggressor in the war for the first time.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Fox News that Trump’s mediation in the Gaza ceasefire gave him additional confidence that peace between Russia and Ukraine was possible.
“But if he succeeds, I hope and God help him, of course we will nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize and it will be our honor to congratulate him,” Zelensky said.
