Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for the delivery of an additional 25 US Patriot anti-missile batteries amid the rapidly escalating air war with Russia, as it became clear that Donald Trump had once again tacked sharply towards Moscow.
The Ukrainian president added that he would be ready to join Vladimir Putin and Trump at their summit in Hungary if he was invited.
Reports over the weekend said Trump had privately urged Zelenskyy to accept Russia’s terms for ending the war in Ukraine during a fractious White House meeting on Friday, warning that Putin had said he would “destroy” Ukraine if it did not agree.
According to the Financial Times, the meeting descended at times into a “shouting match”, with Trump “cursing all the time”.
Trump says Ukraine’s Donbas region should be ‘cut the way it is’ to end war with Russia – video
Speaking in Kyiv after talks with Trump and American weapons-makers, Zelenskyy said Ukraine needed 25 US Patriot anti-missile batteries and that Russia’s frozen assets in the west should be used to buy them.
Ukraine already has some Patriot missile interceptors, but they are not enough to protect most of its major cities or energy infrastructure, which have once again come under heavy Russian attack as winter approaches.
Zelenskyy’s two phone calls with Trump and a face-to-face meeting in Washington last week had raised hopes that Washington could be on the verge of supplying long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine. However, it became clear in the last few days that the US president had once again performed an abrupt U-turn after a two-hour phone conversation with Putin on Friday afternoon.
After inviting Putin to summit in Hungary, Trump reverted to his position on Sunday that Russia should be rewarded for its illegal war of aggression against Ukraine, with Kyiv ceding large parts of its sovereign territory.
Behind the scenes, Trump had pushed Zelenskyy to give up swaths of territory to Russia, two people briefed on the discussion told Reuters. “Let it be cut the way it is,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday. “It’s cut up right now,” he said, adding that you can “leave it the way it is right now”.
“They can negotiate something later on down the line,” he said. But for now, both sides of the conflict should “stop at the battle line – go home, stop fighting, stop killing people”.
Commenting on reports of the Trump-Zelenskyy meeting, the EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said Ukrainians were very resilient and were fighting for their freedom, their independence and their country. “So, they can’t just surrender. And I think, for the international order, it is also negative if the aggressor gets what he wants, because that gives a signal to all the aggressors in the world that you can just go and take what you wish for.”
Contradicting Trump’s positive spin on his conversation with Putin, aides close to Zelenskyy told the Kyiv Independent: “Putin doesn’t want to talk about anything with Ukraine and Zelenskyy, except for big concessions. He hasn’t agreed to a direct meeting with Zelenskyy.”
“But Putin has to somehow move in such a way as to keep Trump’s mood away from tough moves; that’s his goal. And he’s succeeding.”
Commenting on the venue for the Trump-Putin meeting, and his desire to attend, Zelenskyy also suggested Budapest was a problematic location. “If I am invited to Budapest – if it is an invitation in a format where we meet as three or, as it’s called, shuttle diplomacy, President Trump meets with Putin and President Trump meets with me – then in one format or another, we will agree.”
The Ukrainian president, however, criticised the choice of Hungary, which has a tense relationship with Kyiv and is seen as the most Kremlin-sympathetic member of the EU.
“I do not believe that a prime minister who blocks Ukraine everywhere can do anything positive for Ukrainians or even provide a balanced contribution,” Zelensky said, referring to the Hungarian leader, Viktor Orbán.
The French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said Putin should only come to Europe if it was to sign an unconditional ceasefire with Ukraine.
“It is useful for the US authorities to be able to exchange views in order to follow the dialogue with the Russian authorities. But Vladimir Putin’s announced visit to the European Union only makes sense if it leads to an immediate and unconditional ceasefire,” he said ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
Additional reporting by Jennifer Rankin in Brussels