Zelensky paints meeting with Trump as a success, touts new Patriot systems

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky painted his meeting last week with Donald Trump as a success that yielded progress on acquiring new air defence systems, a contrast from reports that Trump had berated him with obscenities in the White House.

In comments made to media on Sunday initially off-the-record but authorised for publication on Monday, the Ukrainian leader described Trump's message at the meeting, which ended with Trump calling for a ceasefire with forces in place, as "positive".

As a result of Zelensky's visit to Washington, Ukraine was now preparing a contract to buy 25 Patriot air defence systems, a major boost to its defences against Russian missile attacks, Zelensky said.

Zelensky was speaking before Reuters and other news organisations reported that Trump had pushed him to give up territory during their meeting, which sources described as more tense than initially disclosed.

TRUMP'S 'MESSAGE IN MY VIEW IS POSITIVE', ZELENSKY SAYS:

"After many rounds of discussion over more than two hours with (Trump) and his team, his message, in my view, is positive: that we stand where we stand on the front line," Zelensky said.

Ukraine and its allies have long called for an immediate ceasefire with troops in place, while Moscow has demanded Ukraine cede further territory before it would halt fighting.

Zelensky did not specify how close Ukraine had come to signing the contract for the 25 Patriots, but he said that a great deal of time on his trip had been spent discussing the issue, including directly with Trump.

Zelensky did not achieve his stated aim of persuading Washington to provide Ukraine with Tomahawk cruise missiles for long-range attacks inside Russia. Zelensky said he believed this was because Trump did not want to take steps that would anger Vladimir Putin shortly before a plan to meet the Russian president at a summit.

Zelensky has spent half a year rebuilding his relationship with Trump since a disastrous meeting in February, in which Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated the Ukrainian leader in front of cameras in the White House Oval Office.

Zelensky returned to the White House on Friday to meet Trump, a day after Trump spoke by telephone to Putin.

Three sources described Trump's meeting with Zelensky as tense, with Trump repeatedly using profanity.

"It was pretty bad," one of the sources said of the meeting. "The message was, 'Your country will freeze, and your country will be destroyed'" if Ukraine doesn't make a deal with Russia.

It was the latest apparent shift in positions for Trump, who had said for months that Ukraine must give up territory to make peace, only to describe Russia last month as a "paper tiger" and say Ukraine could potentially win back all its land.

Trump and Putin are planning to meet in Budapest, capital of Hungary, a NATO and EU member that has maintained warm relations with Moscow throughout the Ukraine war.

Zelensky criticised the choice of venue, suggesting that Hungary's domestic politics had played a role in the choice: "We are talking about peace in Ukraine, not elections in Hungary". However, he said that he would be willing to attend talks there if he were to be invited.

HISTORY OF THE WAR:

The Russo-Ukrainian war began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia occupied and annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then supported Russian paramilitaries who began a war in the eastern Donbas region against Ukraine's military. In 2018, Ukraine declared the region to be occupied by Russia. The first eight years of conflict also included naval incidents and cyberwarfare. In February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine and began occupying more of the country, starting the current phase of the war, the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II. The war has resulted in a refugee crisis and hundreds of thousands of deaths.

In early 2014, the Euromaidan protests led to the Revolution of Dignity and the ousting of Ukraine's pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych. Shortly after, pro-Russian protests began in parts of southeastern Ukraine, while unmarked Russian troops occupied Crimea. Russia soon annexed Crimea after a highly disputed referendum. In April 2014, Russian-backed militants seized towns and cities in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region and proclaimed the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) as independent states, starting the Donbas war. Russia covertly supported the separatists with its own troops, tanks and artillery, preventing Ukraine from fully retaking the territory. The International Criminal Court (ICC) judged that the war was both a national and international armed conflict involving Russia,[9] and the European Court of Human Rights judged that Russia controlled the DPR and LPR from 2014 onward. In February 2015, Russia and Ukraine signed the Minsk II agreements, but they were never fully implemented in the following years. The Donbas war became a static conflict likened to trench warfare; ceasefires were repeatedly broken but the frontlines did not move.

Beginning in 2021, there was a massive Russian military buildup near Ukraine's borders, including within neighbouring Belarus. Russian officials repeatedly denied plans to attack Ukraine. Russia's president Vladimir Putin voiced expansionist views and challenged Ukraine's right to exist. He demanded that Ukraine be barred from ever joining the NATO military alliance. In early 2022, Russia recognised the DPR and LPR as independent states. While Russian troops surrounded Ukraine, its proxies stepped up attacks on Ukrainian forces in the Donbas.

On 24 February 2022, Putin announced a "special military operation" to "demilitarize and denazify" Ukraine, claiming Russia had no plans to occupy the country. The Russian invasion that followed was internationally condemned; many countries imposed sanctions against Russia, and sent humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine. In the face of fierce resistance, Russia abandoned an attempt to take Kyiv in early April. In August, Ukrainian forces began liberating territories in the north-east and south. In September, Russia declared the annexation of four partially occupied provinces, which was internationally condemned. Since then, Russian offensives and Ukrainian counteroffensives have gained only small amounts of territory. The invasion has also led to attacks in Russia by Ukrainian and Ukrainian-backed forces, among them a cross-border offensive into Russia's Kursk region in August 2024. Russia has repeatedly carried out deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on civilians far from the frontline. The ICC opened an investigation into war crimes and issued arrest warrants for Putin and several other Russian officials.