Zelenskiy paints meeting with Trump as a success, touts new Patriot systems
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy painted his meeting last week with US President Donald Trump as a success that yielded progress on acquiring new air defence systems.
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 Zelenskiy’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, Zelenskiy said.
Zelenskiy 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.
This comes as the Ukrainian President did not achieve his stated aim of persuading Washington to provide Ukraine with Tomahawk cruise missiles for long-range attacks inside Russia. Zelenskiy 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 an upcoming summit.
