Trump rules out delivering Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine now: "We'd rather end the war."

WashingtonAt the disastrous February meeting, Donald Trump heckled Volodymyr Zelensky, telling him he didn't have "good cards" to win the war with Russia. Eight months later, the Ukrainian president met with the US president for the third time, hoping to pull off an ace: Tomahawk cruise missiles, which could put Moscow in check. "It's an honor to have a very strong leader here, a man who's been through a lot and who I feel very good about," Trump said immediately after the meeting with Zelensky. This is another provocation toward the Kremlin, which has been biting its nails at the feeling that Washington is once again taking control in Kiev.

But despite the fine words, Trump has managed to measure his temper in the horns attack he's trying to provoke against Vladimir Putin and has lowered Zelensky's expectations regarding the missiles. "We have an obligation to make sure that we're fully supplied as a country, because you never know what can happen in war and peace. We'll talk about the Tomahawks, but we'd rather not need them. We'd much rather end the war, to be honest," Trump said. who linked the cooling to the "very good conversation" he had yesterday with the Russian president.

"The war in the Middle East was much more complicated, and we've solved it. I think we have a good chance [of ending the war in Ukraine]. I think President Zelensky wants to end it, and I think Putin wants to end it," Trump said, without giving any explanation as to why the former KGB agent did so this time.

Aware that Zelensky would want to take advantage of the cooling relations between the White House and the Kremlin, Putin called Trump yesterday and again pulled him towards his side. with the promise of a meeting in Budapest to end the war. Faced with this prospect, the Republican appears to have mellowed, although he acknowledged that he doesn't rule out Putin trying to waste his time, as happened in Alaska, so that Russian soldiers can continue advancing in their occupation of Ukraine. "Yes, I'm concerned," Trump told reporters.

Budapest, a new horizon

This dose of realism hasn't stopped Trump from continuing to maintain that the talks are "more on track" and pointing to the summit in Budapest as a new horizon for ending the war. However, the Republican has ruled out the possibility of the Russian and Ukrainian presidents sitting at the same table during his trip to Hungary. "It will most likely be a bilateral meeting. It will be a two-way meeting, but we will have President Zelensky in contact," the Republican said, adding: "These two leaders don't like each other, and we want to make it comfortable for everyone. So one way or another, there will be a separation anyway," but perhaps they are involved.

Zelensky stressed that he believes the two are beginning to understand each other, referring to the rapprochement with Trump and the change in tone. The Ukrainian reiterated that the priority right now is to sit down and talk to achieve a ceasefire. He also reminded Trump that Putin doesn't want a truce, a message the Ukrainians have been sending to the US president for weeks in the hope of securing more military and economic support. "This is why we must pressure him," Zelensky argued, in a clear reference to the request for Tomahawks.

The Ukrainian also stressed the need for solid security guarantees, and referencing his speech at the UN, where he called on the European Union to become more involved in the war, he said that "NATO would be the best, but weapons are very important." During the high-level week in New York, Trump and Zelensky also met. After the conversation, the Republican sent a message that seemed unlikely at the beginning of the year: he said he believed Kiev could recover its borders, but at the same time, he seemed to disengage from the conflict, placing the responsibility for the Ukrainians' success on the shoulders of Brussels.

The cooling of relations between the White House and the Kremlin had given Kiev hope to once again shift the US toward a more pro-Ukrainian position.The success of the ceasefire in Gaza as a first step toward ending the war has further underscored the stalemate in the Ukrainian conflict, especially after Moscow began to cool expectations for the face-to-face meeting between Zelensky and Putin, which Trump promised after the August meeting with the Ukrainian and the leaders. A meeting that pleases the US president's ego due to the photograph of him sitting at the Oval Office desk while European leaders listened on the other side.

Decisive missiles?

Impatient, Trump had issued several threats against Russia in recent days regarding the possibility of supplying Tomahawk missiles to Kiev. The missiles could be a crucial element in turning the tide of the war amid the new wave of Russian attacks against Ukrainian energy facilities on the eve of winter. But today's cooling-off regarding the operation was already anticipated yesterday afternoon, when Trump explained that during the "productive" conversation with Putin they had also discussed the missiles. "We also need the Tomahawks for the United States," he pointed out.

Financial Times published this Friday that the Alaska summit marked a turning point in relations between Moscow and Washington. After rolling out the red carpet for Putin, the Russian let Trump know that he rejected the US offer to ease sanctions in exchange for a ceasefire. The Russian president insisted that the war would only end if Ukraine capitulated and ceded more territory to the Donbas.

However, Trump called the day a "great and successful one." Shortly afterward, the delegation of European leaders accompanied Zelensky on his second trip to the White House, fearing that the Republican was already down on the idea of handing Ukraine over to Russia. But what both the Ukrainian and the rest of the European leaders found was a much more receptive Trump. It's also true that Zelensky had learned his lesson about how to address the tycoon's ego.