US President Donald Trump will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Friday. The meeting is meant to symbolise improving relations between Washington and Kiev - after months of Trump pressing Ukraine to make some concessions in its conflict with Russia.
According to a senior Ukrainian official with direct knowledge of the preparations, the Ukrainian side confirmed the meeting to POLITICO. NBC News was the first to report on the plan.
Interestingly, the announcement of the meeting comes just a day after a phone call between the two presidents, during which they discussed the possibility that Kiev could acquire US Tomahawk missiles. These would allow them to hit targets deep in Russian territory - a move that Trump has so far rejected due to fears of further escalation of the three-and-a-half-year-old conflict.
The relationship between the two men has warmed considerably since the February incident in the Oval Office, when Trump, along with Vice President JD Vance, publicly criticized Zelensky for not, in their view, sufficiently appreciating US support for Ukraine.
Trump has changed his approach in recent months: he has abandoned his earlier strategy "pat on the back" towards Vladimir Putinwhich he justified by trying to bring Russia to the negotiating table. In September, he declared on the network Truth Socialthat Ukraine can regain its territories, and he called Russia "paper tiger". For the first time, he also publicly referred to Russia as "aggressor" wars.
Zelensky in an interview with the station on Sunday Fox News praised Trump's diplomatic success in negotiating a ceasefire in Gaza and expressed confidence that a similar outcome could be achieved between Russia and Ukraine.
"If he succeeds - I hope so, and God bless him - of course we will nominate him in that case and congratulate him with pride," Zelensky said, alluding to the possibility that Trump could win the coveted Nobel Peace Prize.
Friday's meeting is expected to be the next step in a process that could fundamentally rewrite the current dynamics of US-Ukrainian relations - and perhaps the direction of the war itself.
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