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By Gram Slattery and David BrunnstromWashington — US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday discussed efforts to revive peace talks with Russia and a deal to allow Ukraine to make Patriot missile interceptors.Zelensky held a private meeting with Trump in the Oval Office before the funeral of senator Lindsey Graham in the afternoon. Graham was one of Kyiv’s strongest backers.The visit offered Zelensky an opportunity to shore up military support at a time when US-Ukraine relations are warmer than they have been in months.Still, the US has been sitting on aid for Kyiv and the loss of Graham has removed one of Ukraine’s most influential advocates in Washington.Zelensky posted on Telegram that he had a “good meeting” with Trump, and they had discussed the US leader’s promise at a Nato summit earlier this month to grant Ukraine a licence to produce Patriot missile interceptors.Ukraine has run critically low on supplies of Patriots, which remain the only weapon in its arsenal capable of downing ballistic missiles as Russia has stepped up its attacks on cities.“We talked with the president about licences for producing interceptors for the Patriots and other ideas that could help,” Zelensky said without providing further details.“We also talked about diplomacy — it is important to step up the diplomatic process,” he said, referring to stalled peace talks with Russia to end the war, now in its fifth year.Zelensky was expected to go to the US Capitol for a meeting with senators after Graham’s funeral. The Senate is preparing to vote on a package of new sanctions on Russia that Graham spent his final days trying to conclude.Zelensky’s visit came after a letter sent to legislators from the Pentagon showed the Trump administration has told Congress it will not finish spending $400m authorised for aid to Ukraine until fiscal year 2029.Democrats and some of Trump’s fellow Republicans have criticised the Pentagon for sitting on aid for Kyiv that members of both parties backed last year.Zelensky and Trump clashed repeatedly in the early months of Trump’s second term, but relations between the two have improved in recent months as Ukraine has had greater success in the war, including increased attacks on Russia’s oil industry.Graham, a South Carolina Republican who died suddenly from a heart ailment on July 11 at age 71, was one of Trump’s most visible allies. He was a defence hawk who regularly called for an interventionist US role on the world stage and strongly backed Ukraine.He met Zelensky in Kyiv only a day before his death, the 10th time he had visited Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion.Zelensky spoke last week with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner about the prospects for renewed peace talks with Russia and said Ukrainian and US officials could meet in the US in the coming days.
