AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was back at the White House today for another meeting with President Trump. It is Zelenskyy's third time at the White House this year, and it came one day after Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone and the two of them agreed to meet in person again in the coming weeks. NPR's Deepa Shivaram has been covering all of this and joins us now from the White House. Hi, Deepa.
DEEPA SHIVARAM, BYLINE: Hey there.
CHANG: OK, so how did Zelenskyy's meeting go today?
SHIVARAM: Well, before their meeting kicked off, Trump and Zelenskyy took some questions from the press, and the two leaders were very complimentary of each other. You'll recall back in February, the vibe between Trump and Zelenskyy was not so jovial. That was the meeting where Zelenskyy abruptly left the White House. But since then, both leaders have had more face-to-face meetings that have gone pretty well for both sides.
And one of the main things that came up today was deliberations on if the U.S. will provide Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine. Trump says it could be a point of leverage to help end the war. He said that yesterday on the phone, he asked Putin, would you mind if I gave a couple thousand Tomahawks to your opposition? And he said, Putin did not like that idea.
Zelenskyy, though, has been asking for these weapons, and he suggested that if the U.S. were to give Ukraine these Tomahawk missiles, then Ukraine could provide more drones to the U.S. And Trump seemed to be maybe a little bit open to that idea, but he said he'd rather the war be over entirely.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: It's not easy for us to give - you're talking about massive numbers of very powerful weapons. So that's one of the things we'll be talking about. Hopefully, they won't need it. Hopefully, we'll be able to get the war over with without thinking about Tomahawk.
CHANG: Well, let's turn to Putin because Trump and Putin have agreed to another meeting, this time in Hungary. Why does Trump think another meeting with Putin will be effective? - because they met recently in Alaska, and not a lot happened, right?
SHIVARAM: Yeah, you're right. That meeting didn't really result in a lot. It was supposed to bring about some progress to ending the war. Trump had even said that he wanted Putin and Zelenskyy to set up their own meeting to maybe move things forward. None of that happened.
And Trump has been pretty frustrated with Putin lately, which is kind of a change. He used to talk a lot more positively about the Russian leader. He still insists that they have a good relationship. But today, he admitted that Putin could be stringing him along. And at the same time, he's also changed his tune a bit when it comes to Ukraine. Recently, he said that he thinks Ukraine can take back all of its territory from Russia.
But I will say, just to put this in context, the recent peace deal in the Middle East that Trump helped broker has really added some momentum to his desire to end this conflict between Russia and Ukraine. He said today that this war is easier than solving the crisis in the Middle East.
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TRUMP: The war in the Middle East was far more complicated. We got that one done. And I think we have a good chance. I think President Zelenskyy wants it done, and I think President Putin want it done.
SHIVARAM: So Zelenskyy says that Putin is, quote, "not ready for peace." He thinks he needs to be pushed to the negotiating table. But he says he's open to meet with Putin, with or without Trump.
CHANG: Well, will Zelenskyy be at that meeting in Hungary, as well, though?
SHIVARAM: That's a little TBD. When that meeting is taking place is also TBD. But Trump really wants that meeting to happen, he says, in the next two weeks.
CHANG: That is NPR's Deepa Shivaram. Thank you, Deepa.
SHIVARAM: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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