{"id":965506,"date":"2026-07-28T22:52:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T22:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/965506\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T22:52:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T22:52:15","slug":"zelenskyy-says-he-and-trump-had-good-meeting-before-graham-funeral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/965506\/","title":{"rendered":"Zelenskyy says he and Trump had ‘good meeting’ before Graham funeral"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump<\/a> and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/a> met Tuesday ahead of Sen. Lindsey Graham\u2019s funeral<\/a>, with the two leaders discussing ways for Ukraine to produce its own powerful weapons and \u201cother ideas that could help\u201d in its ongoing war against Russia. <\/p>\n

The sit-down in the Oval Office, which was closed to the media, followed a consequential meeting at the NATO summit<\/a> earlier this month in Ankara, Turkey, where Trump announced that the U.S. will give Ukraine a license to make Patriot defense systems<\/a> \u2014 a long-running request from Kyiv to counter Russian missile attacks. <\/p>\n

Taken together, those meetings underscore how much the U.S. president, once a major skeptic of continued assistance to Kyiv, has warmed to Zelenskyy as Ukraine continues to withstand the Russian barrage more than four years after Moscow\u2019s invasion in 2022.<\/a> The Ukrainian leader, whose relationship with Trump in his second term was marked by a raucous White House visit in which he was denigrated for being ungracious, has worked to court the Republican administration while relying on both likely and unlikely allies in Trump\u2019s orbit to exert their influence with the president. <\/p>\n

The ongoing conflict in the Middle East, which has consumed much of the Trump administration\u2019s focus this year, has also become gradually entwined with Ukraine, with Ukraine firing on at least one Iranian vessel<\/a> in the Caspian Sea over the weekend while Zelenskyy asserts that Russia has been offering satellite imagery of U.S. bases in the Persian Gulf to Iran. <\/p>\n

In a post on social media after the meeting, Zelenskyy thanked Trump for the \u201cgood meeting\u201d and the Republican administration\u2019s efforts to aid Kyiv in the long-running war.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President and I discussed licenses for Patriot interceptor production and several other ideas that could help,\u201d said Zelenskyy, who also noted that he offered condolences to Trump for the death of Graham<\/a>, a close ally. \u201cWe also spoke about diplomacy \u2014 it\u2019s important that the diplomatic process be reinvigorated.\u201d<\/p>\n

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said both the Zelenskyy meeting and a separate, later sit-down with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were \u201cpositive and productive.\u201d <\/p>\n

Zelenskyy wants to bolster Ukraine\u2019s defense production<\/p>\n

Later during his whirlwind, one-day visit to Washington, Zelenskyy posted that he met with officials from Lockheed Martin for further cooperation in both defense production and exchanging of technologies, saying, \u201cUkraine has a lot to share with those who help us protect lives.\u201d <\/p>\n

Luke Coffey, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning Hudson Institute, said expanding production capacity for Patriot interceptors is not only vital for Ukraine, but also for the U.S. and its Gulf allies, particularly as supply runs low during the war in Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cUkraine has shown that its defense industry is capable, innovative and creative,\u201d Coffey said. \u201cI have no doubt that when they\u2019re granted the license, they will be able to produce these missiles which will hopefully mean there will be more available for the U.S.\u201d <\/p>\n

Trump welcomed Zelenskyy to the White House as the Ukrainian leader traveled to Washington to honor Graham, whose final act as a public official was visiting Kyiv<\/a> and securing an agreement on a package of sanctions that seek to punish countries that purchase Russian oil, gas and other exports.<\/p>\n

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In a Fox News Channel interview Tuesday, Trump recalled Graham\u2019s hawkishness and said the Republican South Carolina senator\u2019s support for Ukraine never wavered. Trump said Graham had suggested it was time to make a deal with Iran but had no similar suggestion for the Russia-Ukraine war<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cUkraine, he\u2019s very militant about,\u201d Trump said on \u201cFox & Friends.\u201d \u201cI mean, Lindsey liked war, to be honest with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump administration\u2019s embrace of Zelenskyy comes as a far-right activist with the U.S. president\u2019s ear had a recent, widely publicized change of heart on Russia\u2019s war against Ukraine. <\/p>\n

Laura Loomer<\/a>, known primarily for her incendiary social media posts and her influence with Trump, has been traveling through Ukraine, witnessing Moscow\u2019s barrage firsthand and interviewing Zelenskyy while admitting she was \u201cbamboozled by Russian propaganda.\u201d Loomer said she spoke to Trump after she met with Zelenskyy in Ukraine last week and she expects to meet with the U.S. president once she returns from her trip.<\/p>\n

Ukraine highlights ties between Iran and Russia <\/p>\n

Ahead of the meeting, Zelenskyy also warned that Russia has been aiding Iran as the war persists by capturing satellite imagery of U.S. bases in the Gulf region that later appear in Iran. The Ukrainian president also asserted that there was a \u201cclear correlation\u201d between Russia\u2019s images and subsequent Iranian strikes.<\/p>\n

Iran is a key ally of Russia in its war against Ukraine and has helped Moscow build up its drone expertise.<\/p>\n

But on Monday, Trump downplayed any impact of potential Russian assistance for Iran, even as he said he would raise the matter with Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019ve been doing it, certainly not at a high level,\u201d Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he traveled to Michigan<\/a>. \u201cAnd if they have, it has been very un-impactful.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the Caspian Sea attack, the foreign ministers of Iran and Ukraine spoke about the matter, according to statements posted on social media Tuesday. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called the conversation \u201cfrank\u201d and said Ukraine\u2019s focus is \u201csolely at defending our country from Russian aggression and never intended to target civilian vessels or people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran has said at least one sailor was killed in the attack. For his part, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran is also not seeking escalation but \u201cmade clear any attack on our citizens or interests is unacceptable\u201d and \u201cthere must be restitution for losses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pro-Ukraine backers pushing to advance sanctions bill <\/p>\n

Zelenskyy had a busy itinerary during his latest visit to Washington. Besides his White House meeting, Zelenskyy went to the Capitol to meet with senators Tuesday evening after Graham\u2019s funeral at Washington National Cathedral.<\/p>\n

Republican leadership is hoping to advance Graham\u2019s sanctions legislation<\/a> this week, although the Senate is juggling several other priorities before lawmakers leave Washington for their August recess.<\/p>\n

The bill has dozens of backers from both major political parties and is seen as the main policy tribute to Graham, who died unexpectedly<\/a> this month from a tear in his aorta. It imposes tariffs on goods from the world\u2019s top five purchasers of Russia oil or natural gas, including China and India.<\/p>\n

The legislation also includes sanctions against Putin; senior Russian political and military leaders; and Russian financial institutions and energy projects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Tuesday ahead of Sen. Lindsey Graham\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":965507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[3489,3881,372,7838,84,69,14414,57,83,3461,6087,8133,67722,16541,51309,370132,50,8961,80,3658,3657,273,3660,67,370,132,68,274,3656,93,107],"class_list":["post-965506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","category-us","tag-abbas-araghchi","tag-ap-top-news","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-diplomacy","tag-district-of-columbia","tag-donald-trump","tag-funerals-and-memorial-services","tag-general-news","tag-iran","tag-iran-government","tag-iran-war","tag-karoline-leavitt","tag-laura-loomer","tag-lindsey-graham","tag-lockheed-martin-corp","tag-luke-coffey","tag-news","tag-north-atlantic-treaty-organization","tag-politics","tag-russia-government","tag-russia-ukraine-war","tag-ukraine","tag-ukraine-government","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-government","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","tag-washington-news","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=965506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/965507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=965506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=965506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=965506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}