US President Donald Trump welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as he arrives for a meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, on October 17, 2025. TOM BRENNER / AFP
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met Donald Trump at the White House on Friday, October 17, to push the US leader for long-range Tomahawk missiles that can strike deep inside Russia. Trump shook hands with Zelensky, who was wearing a dark suit and shirt, outside the West Wing and briefly raised a fist but neither leader answered shouted questions.
The meeting comes a day after Trump announced a fresh summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin – and cast doubt on giving Kyiv the powerful cruise missiles. Ukraine has been lobbying Washington for Tomahawks for weeks, arguing that they could help put pressure on Russia to end its brutal three-and-a-half year invasion.
But on the eve of Zelensky's visit, Putin warned Trump in a call against delivering the weapons, saying it could escalate the war and jeopardize peace talks. Trump also questioned whether he would grant Ukraine's wish, saying Washington could not "deplete" its own supplies of Tomahawks.
Trump and Putin agreed to a new summit in the Hungarian capital Budapest, which would be their first since an August meeting in Alaska that failed to produce any kind of peace deal. Diplomatic talks on ending Russia's invasion have stalled since the Alaska summit.
