WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday for a working lunch, three sources familiar with the planning said, amid intensifying discussions about the potential provision of long-range Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv.
The two leaders spoke on both Saturday and Sunday, and a high-ranking Ukrainian delegation, led by Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, is slated to come to Washington before the Friday meeting to lay the groundwork for the leaders’ talks.
The main topics are expected to include air defense, additional U.S. weapons for Kyiv and Russia’s potential return to the negotiating table, said one of the sources who, like the others, requested anonymity as the visit has not been publicly announced.
Zelenskiy has been lobbying Washington to supply U.S.-produced Tomahawk missiles, which have the capacity to hit Moscow, but which Ukrainians say would be used only on military targets. Moscow has said such a move would represent a serious escalation. Trump has said he is considering sending Tomahawks to Ukraine, though he has also said he might talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin about it.
Ukraine and the U.S. are also closing in on a landmark drone deal in which Ukraine would share drone technology with the United States. European diplomats see such a deal as an important tool for keeping the mercurial U.S. president engaged and supportive of Ukraine.
(Reporting by Steve Holland and Gram Slattery in Washington and Tom Balmforth in London; Editing by Jeff Mason and Matthew Lewis)
