Zelensky from Washington: No announcement regarding Tomahawk missiles… Washington doesn’t want escalation

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky refused to make any statement on Friday regarding the possibility of the United States delivering Tomahawk missiles to his country after his meeting with Donald Trump in Washington, stressing that the US president “doesn’t want escalation”.

“We also discussed the issue of long-range missiles, and I don’t want to make any statements on this matter… We decided not to discuss it because… the United States does not want escalation,” Zelensky said at a press conference.

For his part, US President Donald Trump expressed his hope of ending the war in Ukraine without supplying Kyiv with Tomahawk missiles.

This came during his meeting on Friday with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, at the White House.

“We also need Tomahawk missiles… We’ve sent a lot to Ukraine over the past four years, but things are different now,” Trump said.

He continued, “We’ll discuss Tomahawk missiles today, and I hope we can end the war before they need them, and we are very close to that”.

Trump emphasized the importance of Tomahawk missiles to US security, saying, “Tomahawk missiles are very important. We want Tomahawk missiles, too. We don’t want to give up what we need to protect our country”.

Trump said he will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Hungarian capital, Budapest.

He noted that he would discuss with Zelensky the phone call he had with Putin on Thursday, adding, “We will see if we can end the war”.

“I think both Putin and Zelensky want to end this war… All they have to do is reach some understanding,” Trump explained.

In turn, Zelensky thanked Trump for his role in securing a ceasefire in Gaza.

He added, “President Trump has an opportunity to end the war… He successfully brokered a ceasefire in the Middle East, and he can do the same in Ukraine”.

He continued: “We want peace, but Putin doesn’t want it, so we must increase pressure on him”.

Kremlin foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov said Thursday that President Putin told Trump that supplying Ukraine with Tomahawk cruise missiles would harm bilateral relations.