U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on the plane returning to Washington from Egypt on Oct. 13, Monday night, that he intends to host Ukraine’s acting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Oct. 17. His comment was brief ("I think so, yeah"), and he gave no further details. Nor did he answer a question on whether he would approve sending U.S. long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine as he had mooted on Oct. 12.
Zelenskyy confirmed the meeting, posting Oct. 13 on X that the Ukrainian delegation to prepare for his trip was already under way to the United States, led by Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko, head of Zelenskyy’s Presidential Office Andriy Yermak, and Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Rustem Umerov, among others. “Air defense and our long-range capabilities” to hit Russia are on the agenda, wrote Zelenskyy, and that he is also to meet with U.S. defense and energy companies, and “possibly” with senators and members of Congress while in D.C.
Russians continue to warn that the U.S. providing Ukraine with long-range missiles, whose use requires hands-on U.S. guidance to fire, will not force Russia into peace talks (the going theory in Kiev and Washington, D.C.), but it will destroy the Aug. 15 Alaska process and push the world to the brink of catastrophe.
