Trump talks with Putin as he considers selling long-range missiles to Ukraine – National
US President Donald Trump said Thursday he was speaking with Russia’s Vladimir Putin about Ukraine’s efforts to acquire long-range missiles.
“I’m talking to President Putin now,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social website shortly after a White House official confirmed the call to the Associated Press and Reuters.
“The conversation is ongoing, it is long, and I will report on its contents, as will President Putin, at the end. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
The call comes ahead of Trump’s meeting Friday at the White House with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has been pressuring Trump to sell kyiv Tomahawk missiles that would allow Ukrainian forces to strike deeper into Russian territory. Zelenskyy argued that such strikes would help Putin take more seriously Trump’s calls for direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine to end the war.
Trump told reporters traveling with him to Israel on Sunday that he planned to discuss the Tomahawks with Putin to pressure him to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. “Do they want the Tomahawks to go in that direction? I don’t think so,” Trump said Sunday. “I think I could talk to Russia about it.”
The White House official who disclosed the Trump-Putin call was not authorized to comment publicly on it and spoke on condition of anonymity.
With a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the conclusion of a hostage deal, Trump said he was now turning his attention to ending the war in Ukraine and considering providing kyiv with long-range weapons as he sought to push Moscow to the negotiating table.
Ending the wars in Ukraine and Gaza was central to Trump’s 2024 re-election speech, in which he consistently pilloried President Joe Biden for his handling of conflict. Yet like his predecessor, Trump has also been blocked by Putin, as he unsuccessfully pressed the Russian leader to hold direct talks with Zelensky to end the war, which is approaching its fourth year.
But just after the Gaza ceasefire, Trump is showing new confidence in his ability to finally make progress in ending the Russian invasion. He also signals that he is ready to step up pressure on Putin if he does not come to the table soon.
“It’s interesting that we made progress today, because of what happened in the Middle East,” Trump said Wednesday night about the war between Russia and Ukraine, as he hosted supporters of his White House ballroom plan for a lavish dinner.
Earlier this week in Jerusalem, in a speech to the Knesset, Trump predicted that the Gaza truce would set the stage for the United States to help Israel and many of its Middle Eastern neighbors normalize relations. But Trump also made clear that his top foreign policy priority now was to end Europe’s largest armed conflict since World War II.
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“We have to finish Russia first,” Trump said, turning to his special envoy Steve Witkoff, who has also been his administration’s main point of contact with Putin. “We need to finish this one. If you don’t mind, Steve, let’s focus on Russia first. Okay?”
Trump evaluates Tomahawks for Ukraine
Trump is expected to host Zelensky on Friday for talks, their fourth face-to-face meeting this year.
Before the meeting, Trump said he was considering selling long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to kyiv. Putin made clear that supplying Tomahawks to Ukraine would cross a red line and further damage relations between Moscow and Washington.
But Trump was undeterred.
“He would like to have Tomahawks,” Trump said of Zelensky on Tuesday. “We have a lot of Tomahawks.”
Agreeing to sell the Ukrainian Tomahawks would be a dramatic move, said Mark Montgomery, an analyst at the conservative Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington. But it could take years to supply and train Kyiv on the Tomahawk system.
Montgomery said Ukraine could be better served in the short term with an increase in extended-range attack munitions, or ERAM, missiles and the Army’s tactical missile system, known as ATACMS. The United States has already approved the sale of 3,350 ERAMs to kyiv earlier this year.
The Tomahawk, with a range of about 995 miles (1,600 kilometers), would allow Ukraine to strike much deeper into Russian territory than the ERAM (about 285 miles, or 460 kilometers) or the ATACMS (about 186 miles, or 300 kilometers).
“Providing Tomahawks is as much a political decision as it is a military decision,” Montgomery said. “ERAM has a shorter range, but it can help them put pressure on Russia operationally, on its logistics, its command and control, and the deployment of its forces several hundred kilometers from the front line. This can be very effective.”
Signs of White House interest in new sanctions against Russia
Zelensky is expected to reiterate his call for Trump to hit the Russian economy with new sanctions, something the Republican so far appears reluctant to do.
Congress has considered legislation that would bring tougher sanctions against Moscow, but Trump has largely focused his attention on pressuring NATO members and other allies to stop purchases of Russian oil, the engine that powers Moscow’s war machine. To that end, Trump said Wednesday that India, which became one of Russia’s biggest crude buyers after Ukraine’s invasion, had agreed to stop buying oil from Moscow.
Pending Trump’s blessing, the Senate is awaiting a bill that would impose high tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports in an effort to economically cripple Moscow.
Although the president has not formally endorsed it — and Republican leaders are not considering moving forward without his support — the White House has, behind the scenes, shown greater interest in the bill in recent weeks.
Administration officials reviewed the legislation in depth, proposing changes and requesting technical changes, according to two officials with knowledge of the discussions between the White House and Senate. That was interpreted on Capitol Hill as a sign that Trump is taking the legislation, sponsored by his close ally Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., as well as Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., more seriously.
A White House official said the administration was working with lawmakers to ensure “the bills introduced advance the President’s foreign policy goals and authorities.” The official, who was granted anonymity to discuss private deliberations, said any sanctions package must give the president “complete flexibility.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday that the administration expects greater buy-in from Europe, which he said faces a greater threat of Russian aggression than the United States.
“So all I hear from the Europeans is that Putin is coming to Warsaw,” Bessent said. “There are very few things in life that I’m sure of. I’m sure he won’t come to Boston. So we will respond…if our European partners join us.”
AP writers Fatima Hussein, Chris Megerian and Didi Tang contributed to this report.
