Donald Trump wants to end the war in Ukraine “without thinking about tomahawks”

Is the Ukraine war continuing to escalate with attacks deep within Russian territory by Western weapons, or is there any prospect of ending the conflict in the foreseeable future? This was a question behind US President Donald Trump’s meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky stood. Trump decided against further escalation.

Because the US President wants it Ukraine will not deliver Tomahawk cruise missiles for the time being: Ukraine will supply these weapons “hopefully” Don’t need it at all, Trump said on Friday during a meeting with Zelensky in the White House. “Hopefully we will be able to end the war without thinking about tomahawks”said Trump. The US President once again expressed his confidence that he would be able to persuade Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin to end the war.

“I believe that President Putin wants to end the war”said Trump in his third meeting with Zelensky in Washington since returning to the White House. Zelensky, who was lambasted by Trump in front of cameras at a meeting in the Oval Office in February, contradicted the US president and said Putin was “not ready” for peace.

The Ukrainian government had been asking the US government for the Tomahawk precision weapons for weeks and described the hoped-for delivery as the most important topic of the meeting between Trump and Zelensky. The cruise missiles have a range of up to 1,600 kilometers and would enable Ukraine to carry out attacks deep into Russian territory.

At the meeting in the White House, Zelensky offered Trump a swap deal: the USA would have Tomahawks and other “very strong” Cruise missiles and missiles and could from Ukraine in return “thousands of drones” receive. According to information from Ukrainian delegation circles, Zelensky also showed Trump a map with possible targets for attacks in Russia, on which the locations of the Russian arms industry were listed.

But Trump weighed it down: Supplying Ukraine with Tomahwks despite Putin’s warnings could lead to one “major escalation” lead. “It could cause a lot of bad things to happen”said Trump.

After his arrival in Washington On Thursday, Zelensky had already held talks with representatives of the US defense company Raytheon, which produces Tomahawk cruise missiles and Patriot air defense systems. “We discussed Raytheon’s production capabilities and possible avenues for cooperation to strengthen Ukraine’s air defense and long-range capabilities”Zelenskyj explained in online services. A possible joint US-Ukrainian production was also discussed.

The prospect that the USA could supply Ukraine with Tomahawk cruise missiles is forcing Moscow to negotiate, Zelenskyj explained on the online service X after his arrival in the USA. “We can already see that Moscow is rushing to resume dialogue.”

Last weekend, Trump said he could threaten Putin with supplying tomahawks to Kiev if Russia did not stop its attacks on Ukraine. After a phone call with Putin on Thursday, he then announced a meeting with the Kremlin leader in Hungary’s capital Budapest. The aim is to find out “whether we can end this inglorious war between Russia and Ukraine”. According to him, the meeting will take place “probably” take place within two weeks.

After his conversation with Zelensky, Trump wrote on his online service Truth Social that the meeting was “very interesting and warm” been. “But I told him, as I strongly recommended to President Putin, that it was time to stop the killing and make a deal”Trump added.

Zelensky told journalists after the meeting that Russia had “Fear” in front of the Tomahawks because it is one “powerful weapon” act. But he is “realistic”as far as the hoped-for delivery is concerned: He had spoken to Trump about it, but the USA wanted it “no escalation”.

Shortly after his meeting with Trump, Zelensky also phoned allies from Europe, according to information from Ukrainian delegation circles. Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) said on X that Zelenskyj had “the full support of Germany and its European friends on the path to peace”. “After his meeting with President Trump, we coordinated and will support the next steps. Now Ukraine needs a peace plan”added Merz.