US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was speaking with Russia’s Putin as he looked into Ukraine’s long-range missile push.
“I’m talking to President Putin Now,” Trump wrote on his social media website shortly after a White House official confirmed the call to The Associated Press and Reuters.
“The discussion is ongoing, long, and I will report the content, as will Peamenger Putin, at the end of it. 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 pushing Trump to sell Ukrainian missiles deep into Russian territory. Zelenskyy pointed out that such strikes will help force Putin to take Trump’s calls for direct talks between Russia and Ukraine to end the hostilities seriously.
Trump had told reporters traveling with him in Israel on Sunday that he planned to talk to Putin as a way to pressure him into ending Russia’s war in Ukraine. “Do they want to have Tomahawks go down that path? I don’t think so,” Trump said Sunday. “I think I might talk to Russia about that.”
The White House official who disclosed the Prump-Putin call was not authorized to comment on its contents and spoke on condition of anonymity.
With a weak Israel – Hamas Resefire and the management of the case is in charge, now Trump said that he is now paying attention to his war to bring the war in Ukraine to the end and is looking to provide weapons to Kyiv as long as he is looking at Moscow at the negotiating table.
Ending the wars in Ukraine and Gaza was the basis of opposition to Trump’s 2024 campaign, in which the President insisted on being held accountable for his handling of the conflict. However, like the previous person, Trump was also split by Putin as he failed to successfully persuade the Russian leader to hold direct talks with Zelenskyy to end the war, supporting the fourth year.
But fresh from the Gaza Resefire, Trump is showing new confidence that he can finally end the Russian invasion. He also signals that he is ready to increase the 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,” said Trump on the Russia-Ukraine war on Wednesday evening as he welcomed supporters of his White House Ballroom dinner.
Earlier this week in Jerusalem, in a speech to Khosset, Trump predicted that this stick in Gaza would lay the groundwork for the US to help Israel and many of its neighbors in the Middle East. But Trump also made it clear his top foreign policy is now ending Europe’s biggest armed conflict since World War II.
“The first thing we have to do is get Russia done,” Trump said, turning to Sevoy Envoy Steve Witkoff, who has served as a top executive in the Putin administration. “We have to find out that someone has been made. If you don’t mind, let’s focus on Russia first. Okay?”
Trump is weighing tomahawks on Ukraine
Trump is set to host Zelenskyy in Friday’s talks, their fourth face-to-face meeting this year.
Ahead of the meeting, Trump said he was weighing selling the Kyivs the range of a walking tomahawk. Putin made it clear that providing Ukraine with Tomahawks would cross a red line and also damage relations between Moscow and Washington.
But Trump didn’t cut it.
“He liked to have Tomahawks,” Trump told Zelenskyy on Tuesday. “We have a lot of tomowawks.”
Agreeing to sell Ukraine Tomahawks would be a real deal, said Mark Montgomery, an analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington. But it could take years to equip and train Kyiv for the Tomahawk program.
Montgomery said Ukraine would be best served in the Term near the attack of the Attended Range Attack Musition, or Eram, missiles and the Army Tactical System, known as atacms. The US has already approved the sale of up to 3,350 endams to Kyiv earlier this year.
The Tomahawk, which has a range of 995 kilometers (1,600 miles), would allow Ukraine to drive deeper into Russian territory than the U.S. Army (about 260 kilometers (about 360 miles).
“Providing the Tomahawks is as much a political decision as it is a military one,” Montgomery said. “Eram is a short distance, but this will help them to put pressure on Russia that is active, in their lines, its command and control, and its forces are investigating more in the front kilometers.”
Signs of White House Fans in New Russian Helsetions
Zelenskyy is expected to deliver on his appeal to hit the Russian economy with more subsidies, something the Republicans have, so far, appeared reluctant to do.
Congress has a heavy weight that will lead to a strong resistance to Moscow, but Trump has focused more on pressuring NATO members and other allies to cut their purchase of Russia, the fuel engine of Moscow’s War Machine. To that end, Trump said on Wednesday that India, which became one of Russia’s biggest buyers after the attack on Ukraine, agreed to stop buying oil from Moscow.
Awaiting Trump’s blessing is legislation in the Senate that would impose tariffs on countries that buy oil, gas, uranium and other exports in an effort to hurt Moscow economically.
Although the President has not officially agreed – and Republican leaders do not plan to move forward without his support – the White House has shown, behind the scenes, more interest in recent weeks.
The administration has delved deeper into the law, offering to line up and asking for technical changes, according to two officials with knowledge of negotiations between the White House and the Senate. That is being interpreted on Capitol Hill as a sign that Trump is starting more with the legislation, sponsored by Sen. Lindsey Graham, RS.C., and Sen. Richard Bliencenhal, D-Con.
A White House official said the administration is working with lawmakers to make sure “the bills we introduce advance the policy goals of the President and the administration.” The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private decisions, said any aid package needs to give the President “complete flexibility.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Scent said on Wednesday that the administration was waiting for big purchases from Europe, which marked a bigger face from Russian aggression than the US.
“So all I hear from the Europeans is that Putin is coming to Warsaw,” said Sessent. “There are very few things in life that I am sure of. I am sure that he is not trying in Boston. Therefore, we will respond … If our European partners will join.”
AP writers Fatima Hussein, Chris Megerian and Didi Tang contributed to this report.
