Vitaly Saenko10:43 PM, October 17, 2025

The US President says he prefers ending the war between Russia and Ukraine rather than not providing Tomahawks.

US President Donald Trump has expressed interest in Ukrainian-made combat drones , but is seeking to end the war without providing Tomahawk cruise missiles. According to a UNIAN correspondent, Trump stated this at the start of a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House.

“That’s a problem because we need Tomahawks, we need a lot of the other things that we’ve been sending to Ukraine for the last four years. We’re in a great situation now. We’re sending it to the European Union—they’re paying for it all. They have a lot of money. But it’s not about the money. We need Tomahawks. We need a lot of the other weapons that we’re sending to Ukraine. And that’s one of the reasons we want to end this war. It’s not easy for us to give [weapons]. We’re talking about a lot of very powerful weapons. So that’s one of the things we’ll talk about. I hope they don’t need it. I hope we can end the war without having to think about Tomahawks. I think we’re pretty close to that,” Trump emphasized.

In turn, Zelensky confirmed that Ukraine is committed to ending the war.

“But this war right now is a technological war. You can’t just use Tomahawks. If you want to strike a military target, you need thousands of drones. They work together with these missiles. Ukraine has thousands of our own drones, but we don’t have Tomahawks. That’s why we need Tomahawks. But the United States has powerful production, Tomahawks and other missiles, very powerful missiles. But they can also get our thousands of drones. That’s why we can work together. We can strengthen American production,” Zelenskyy emphasized.

The Ukrainian president added that he had a proposal regarding Ukrainian drones. Trump also confirmed that the United States is interested in Ukrainian drones, even though it is developing many of its own. Trump noted:

“We produce our own drones, but we also buy them from others. And they [the Ukrainians] make very good drones.”

He said the nature of war has changed due to the use of drones. Trump emphasized his commitment to ensuring the United States has everything it needs.

“You never know what’s going to happen in war and peace. So we’re going to talk about Tomahawks, and we’d rather they didn’t need Tomahawks. Frankly, we’d rather the war ended,” Trump emphasized.

(c)UNIAN 2025