President Donald Trump plans to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday, as he continues to signal closer ties with Ukraine after months of pressuring the country to make concessions in its war against Russia.
A senior Ukrainian official with direct knowledge on Monday confirmed to POLITICO that the confab was taking place. NBC News first reported the planned meeting.
And it comes one day after Trump and Zelenskyy in a phone call discussed the possibility of Kyiv acquiring Tomahawk missiles to strike more forcefully into Russia. It’s an idea the president had previously pushed back on, wary of further escalation in the three-and-a-half-year conflict.
The pair’s relationship has warmed significantly since an icy Oval Office confrontation in February, in whichTrump and Vice President JD Vance slammed Zelenskyy publicly for, as they saw it, failing to adequately thank the U.S. for its support of Ukraine.
Trump has since abandoned his strategy of coddling Vladimir Putin to push Russia to the negotiating table. Hedeclared in a Truth Social post in September that Ukraine could win back its territory, saying Russia looked like a “paper tiger.” Also in September,Trump for the first time called Russia the “aggressor” in the war.
Inan interview Sunday on Fox News, Zelenskyy signaled that Trump’s success in negotiating a ceasefire in Gaza gave him yet more confidence that peace could be reached between Russia and Ukraine.
And Trump’s coveted Nobel Peace Prize could yet follow, he said.
“But if he will do it, I hope so and God bless that he can do it, of course in this case we will nominate him, and we will be proud to congratulate him,” he said.
Veronika Melkozerova contributed to this report.
