(Washington) Volodymyr Zelensky will have a lot to do on Friday to convince Donald Trump to deliver Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, while the American president and Vladimir Putin have just relaunched their dialogue.
The Ukrainian president will be received at the White House for the third time since the Republican’s return to power.
The meeting between the two men is scheduled for 1 p.m. shortly before the American president flies to Florida.
During their first meeting in the Oval Office in February, Donald Trump brutally told Volodymyr Zelensky that he “did not hold the cards”. The second, in August, had been much more cordial.
This time, the Ukrainian president arrives at the White House just after a surprise phone call between Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, of which the latter took the opportunity to warn that a delivery of these missiles would “considerably harm” the Russian-American relationship as well as the prospects for resolving the conflict.
PHOTO BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Meeting between Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, on September 23.
The American and Russian presidents have agreed to meet in Budapest, “in the next two weeks,” according to the American president.
“Full of confidence”
On his Truth Social network, the latter judged his exchange with Vladimir Putin “very productive”, Moscow speaking for its part of an interview “extremely frank and marked by trust”.
“We already see that Moscow is rushing to resume dialogue as soon as they hear about Tomahawks,” Volodymyr Zelensky commented on X, upon his arrival in Washington on Thursday.
But Donald Trump was very cautious on Thursday about a possible delivery of these missiles to Kyiv.
“We cannot deplete (the reserves of) our own country,” he said. “We need it too, so I don’t know what we can do.” »
PHOTO HO NEW, REUTERS/KENNETH MOLL ARCHIVES
A tomahawk missile is launched from an American warship.
The BGM-109 Tomahawk flies up to 1,600 kilometers, at 880 km/h, a few dozen meters from the ground.
Volodymyr Zelensky said on a social network on Friday that he had met with representatives of the American manufacturer of the Tomahawk and Patriot missile systems.
“We discussed Raytheon’s production capacity, possible avenues of cooperation to strengthen Ukraine’s air defense and long-range capabilities, as well as the prospect of joint Ukrainian-American production,” he detailed.
Russian attacks
This weaponry would allow the Ukrainian army to strike deeper into Russia, at a time when Moscow, with the arrival of winter, is intensifying its attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
The newfound proximity between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, whose relationship had cooled a little, is therefore something to worry Kyiv, as is the prospect of a meeting between the two men.
Their last summit, on August 15 in Alaska, ended without any concrete prospect of peace. This time, the US president said he hoped to “end this ‘inglorious’ war between Russia and Ukraine.”
PHOTO DREW ANGERER, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, during the bilateral summit last August
Upon his return to power in January, Donald Trump broke the isolation in which Western powers had maintained Vladimir Putin since the Russian invasion of February 2022.
He also questioned the military aid granted to Ukraine during the presidency of his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden.
“Not very good”
The American president, convinced of having a privileged relationship with his Russian counterpart, first assured that he could end the conflict quickly, before conceding that the enterprise was more complex than expected.
The New York billionaire also recently changed his mind on the military balance of power, believing to everyone’s surprise that Ukraine could win the war.
Donald Trump, who refuses to attribute responsibility for the war to Russia, has often referred the two belligerents back to back, sometimes in an almost casual tone.
In June, he compared the deadliest conflict in Europe since the Second World War to a fight between “two children fighting in a park”.
On Thursday, he said of Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin: “We have a problem. These two don’t get along very well. »
