Josh Weiner
President Trump called on Ukraine and Russia to “stop where they are” and bring an end to the war, posting the message on social media after hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for talks at the White House.
Zelensky arrived in Washington on October 16 and spent the day meeting with representatives of US defense companies, including the manufacturer of the Patriot missile system, before sitting down with Trump and his own top aides over lunch the following day to discuss the latest developments in the war.
The meeting came a day after Trump held a lengthy phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a conversation that appears to have shaped the tone of Trump’s subsequent message to both sides about halting the conflict along current lines rather than continuing to push for territorial gains.
The shift extended to weapons policy as well. In the days leading up to the meeting, Trump had signaled openness to selling Ukraine Tomahawk cruise missiles, despite warnings from Putin that doing so would further strain the US-Russia relationship. But following Thursday's call with Putin, Trump began downplaying the prospects of Ukraine actually receiving the missiles, a reversal that Ukrainian officials reportedly found disappointing.
The sequence of events, the Putin call, the softened stance on Tomahawks, and the public call for both sides to freeze the conflict where it stands, point to an administration increasingly focused on reaching a negotiated pause to the war, even as it leaves open questions about how such a freeze would address Ukraine's own objectives for the conflict's resolution.
