WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump said Friday that he would discuss his recent phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as Kyiv’s request to purchase American long-range Tomahawk missiles, during his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House.

“We’ll be talking about what took place yesterday with my phone call with President Putin, and I think that things are coming along pretty well,” Trump told reporters at the White House alongside Zelenskyy.

“President Zelenskyy of Ukraine has endured a lot, and we’ve endured it with him, to be honest. It’s been a long time, and I think we’re making great progress. So we’re going to be talking about that today,” he said.

Trump added that the two leaders would discuss the possible delivery of Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine, but said “hopefully, they won’t need it.”

“Hopefully we’ll be able to get the war over with without thinking about Tomahawks. I think we’re fairly close to that,” he said.

“Tomahawks are a big deal,” Trump continued. “But one thing I have to say — we want tomahawks. Also, we don't want to be giving away things that we need to protect our country ... I want to get this war over.”

Turning to his phone call with Putin, Trump said the Russian president also wants to end the war.

“Or I wouldn’t be talking this way. I think he wants to end the war. I spoke to him yesterday for two-and-a-half hours. We went through a lot of details. He wants to get it ended,” he said.

Trump announced Thursday that he agreed to meet with Putin in Hungary to discuss an end to the war in Ukraine after high-level delegations meet next week.

When asked about a possible trilateral meeting in Hungary, Trump said that prospect is yet “to be determined.”

“But I would say most likely it’s going to be a double meeting. It’ll be a double meeting, but we will have President Zelenskyy in touch,” he added.

When asked whether the US would be interested in Ukrainian drones, Trump said: “We are, yeah, we would.”

He stressed that the US has “a lot of drones right now,” while noting that the country also buys drones from others.

“And they make a very good drone. Drone warfare has really come to the fore over the last couple of years because of this war,” he said.

'We need Tomahawks'

Zelenskyy, for his part, highlighted Ukraine’s “need” for Tomahawks, and the US’ capability of producing the missile systems.

“We need Tomahawks. But the United States has very strong production, and the United States has Tomahawks and other missiles — very strong missiles,” he said.

His remarks came after Trump appeared to step back Thursday from previous comments suggesting the US president was ready to provide Ukraine with Tomahawks, which would allow Kyiv to strike deep within Russian territory.

“We need Tomahawks for the United States of America, too. We have a lot of them but we need them. I mean, we can’t deplete for our country,” Trump had told reporters in the Oval Office.

The Ukrainian president said he believes there was now “momentum” to end the war in Ukraine.

“I think that I’m confident that with your help, we can stop this war,” he added.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine was ready to speak in “any kind of format — bilateral, trilateral.”

“Doesn’t matter … just peace. This is important,” he said.