Zelensky and Trump conducted a meeting in Washington. Trump hopes to end the war without providing Ukraine with Tomahawks

President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived at the White House on October 17 for talks with U.S. President Donald Trump, amid growing speculation that Washington could authorize the transfer of Tomahawk long-range missiles to Ukraine.

The two leaders took questions from reporters during a bilateral lunch before holding closed-door talks that lasted more than two hours.

Before the private session, Trump said he hoped the Tomahawks would not be necessary for peace efforts—though he did not rule out supplying them.

“You know, we need Tomahawks and we need a lot of other weapons that we’re sending to Ukraine... Hopefully, we’ll be able to get the war over without thinking about Tomahawks,” Trump said.

Following the meeting, Zelensky said he and Trump discussed the provision of long-range weapons but agreed not to comment publicly on the details. He described securing a ceasefire as Ukraine’s top priority and said Kyiv was counting on Trump’s “pressure on Putin to stop this war.”

According to Axios, which cited Ukrainian sources familiar with the discussions, the two-and-a-half-hour meeting was tense and at times “emotional.”
“ Nobody shouted, but Trump was tough,” one source told the outlet.

In a post on Truth Social after the meeting, Trump wrote that “it is time to stop the killing, and make a deal.” He later told reporters he wanted Ukraine and Russia to freeze the war along the current battle lines.

The meeting—the sixth since Trump’s return to office—came just one day after his phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, during which the two announced plans for a summit in Hungary.

After his White House talks, Zelensky held a conference call with several European leaders, including NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

At the start of their joint appearance, Trump and Zelensky exchanged warm words, with Trump even complimenting Zelensky’s jacket—a pointed callback to their awkward February meeting when Trump criticized the Ukrainian leader’s attire.

“(Zelensky) looks beautiful in his jacket,” Trump said. “I hope people notice... it’s actually very stylish.”

Trump described Zelensky as “a very strong leader, a man who has been through a lot,” adding, “We’ve gotten along really very well.”

Zelensky expressed cautious optimism about the prospects for peace, while emphasizing Ukraine’s recent battlefield gains.
“We understand that Putin is not ready. I think he’s not ready, but I’m confident that with your help, we can stop this war,” he said. “Their army is weak now, and there are a lot of losses.”

Kyiv entered the talks hoping for stronger U.S. action against Russia. Trump, after meeting Zelensky in New York on September 23, had said Ukraine, with European support, could reclaim all Russian-occupied territories—a remark that fueled speculation about a possible policy shift in Washington.

In their Washington talks, however, Trump made no firm commitments. He declined to approve the delivery of Tomahawks, citing U.S. needs, but said he was open to a broader defense partnership with Kyiv that could include an exchange involving U.S. missiles and Ukrainian drones.

“They make a very good drone,” Trump said.

Zelensky, for his part, proposed that cooperation on drones could complement U.S. long-range missile systems.
“If you want to target a military goal, you need thousands of drones,” he said. “The United States has Tomahawks and other very strong missiles, but they can have our thousands of drones. That’s where we can work together.”

Before the visit, Zelensky said his agenda included two key initiatives: the “Mega Deal” for purchasing American weapons and the “Drone Deal,” which would allow Ukraine to sell unmanned systems to the U.S. The combined agreements could be worth up to $90 billion.

Tomahawk missiles, with a range of 1,600–2,500 kilometers (1,000–1,600 miles), would give Ukraine a major boost in long-range strike capability—an issue at the core of Kyiv’s strategy to pressure Russia militarily and economically.

According to AFP, Zelensky even showed Trump a map of potential Russian targets during their White House meeting.

The Kremlin, meanwhile, has warned that transferring Tomahawks to Ukraine would represent a “qualitatively new stage of escalation.” Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov said the Russian leader raised the matter directly in his latest call with Trump, arguing that such a move “would cause significant harm to relations between Russia and the United States.”

Trump appeared to echo that caution during his press conference with Zelensky.
“They’re a very powerful weapon, but they’re a very dangerous weapon,” he said. “It could mean big escalation... a lot of bad things can happen.”

When asked whether he was optimistic about receiving the missiles, Zelensky replied that he was “realistic.”

While Zelensky told reporters that “Putin is scared of Tomahawks,” Trump dismissed the notion that missile threats were driving Russia to the negotiating table.
“I don’t know what’s bringing him—I think he wants to make a deal, that’s all,” Trump said.

The U.S. president argued that both Zelensky and Putin were ready to end the war but were held back by “bad blood” between them.
“I think President Zelensky wants it done, and I think President Putin wants it done,” he said. “Now all they have to do is get along a little bit.”

On Truth Social, Trump urged both sides to “stop where they are.”
“They should stop where they are. Let both claim victory, let history decide! No more shooting, no more death, no more vast and unsustainable sums of money spent,” he wrote.

Later that evening, he reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire based on current battle lines.
“In my opinion, they should stop the war immediately. You go by the battle line, wherever it is... both sides should go home, go to their families, stop the killing, and that should be it.”

Russia currently occupies about one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory.

Trump’s upcoming summit with Putin in Budapest—set to be the second meeting between U.S. and Russian leaders since 2022—has raised questions in Kyiv and across Europe about how his diplomacy might reshape the course of the war.

The U.S. president said the meeting would “most likely be a double one.”
“It’ll be a double meeting, but we will have the president, Zelensky, in touch,” he added.

A source in Ukraine’s Presidential Office reported that Zelensky’s team had not been informed in advance about Trump’s recent call with Putin.
“(Trump’s) entire tactic is to end the war. So the main thing is that the tactic works,” the source said.

Despite months of U.S.-Russian contact, no tangible progress has been made toward ending the war. After their previous meeting in Alaska on Aug. 15, Bloomberg reported that Putin left believing he could escalate airstrikes on Ukraine without major pushback from Washington.

As Zelensky concluded his visit to Washington, air raid sirens again sounded across Ukraine amid new waves of Russian drone attacks. Explosions were reported in Cherkasy, Poltava, and Kharkiv.

Russian forces attacked Kharkiv Oblast, killing one and injuring six

A man was killed and six others were injured in a series of Russian attacks on Kharkiv Oblast on Saturday, October 18, according to the regional prosecutor’s office.

In the morning, a Russian first-person-view (FPV) drone struck a civilian car in the Zolochiv hromada. One man was killed in the attack, while three others suffered acute stress reactions, officials said.
A hromada is an administrative unit comprising one or several settlements and their adjacent territories.

Around 10:00, an 83-year-old man was injured in a separate Russian strike on Kivsharivka, a settlement in the Kupiansk district.

Later that day, two men aged 19 and 25 were wounded when Russian forces carried out an airstrike on the nearby village of Spodobivka.

The Kharkiv Oblast Prosecutor’s Office also reported casualties from earlier attacks on Friday, October 17. At around 15:00, Russian troops used what is believed to have been a Smerch multiple-launch rocket system to strike the settlement of Zelenyi Hai in the Kupiansk district.

That attack damaged homes, farm buildings, and facilities belonging to a local agricultural enterprise. A 58-year-old man was killed, and a woman was injured.

Peaceful life won't return to Ukraine in the coming years - UHead of Defense Intelligence of Ukraine 

Ukraine will not experience a completely peaceful or threat-free life in the coming years, according to Kyrylo Budanov, Head of Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence (DIU).

Speaking in an interview with Ukrainian journalist Nataliia Moseichuk, Budanov said:

“An absolutely peaceful, threat-free life in the coming years... is unlikely.

I do not mean that we will be constantly at war. But we must be ready to defend ourselves, including through armed resistance at any moment. This will be both a challenge and a test for our society.

And we will have to live with that.”