Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected at the White House on Tuesday for talks with Donald Trump, to try again to win the US president’s support against Russia.
The visit — scheduled for 9:30 am (1330 GMT) — comes as Kiev and Moscow both ramp up long-range strikes, and diplomatic efforts launched by Washington remain at a standstill, more than four years on from Russia’s war.
More than 390 Ukrainian drones targeted the Moscow region overnight, the Russian capital’s mayor said on Tuesday morning. Local authorities reported some damage to residential buildings.
Relations between Zelenskyy and Trump have long been strained but the US leader has in recent weeks shown greater indulgence to his Ukrainian counterpart.
A White House official told AFP last Friday that the two men would meet in Washington on Tuesday, on the same day as a planned tribute for Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch Ukraine supporter, who died this month aged 71.
“We are preparing for a meeting with the president of the United States and his team,” Zelenskyy said, adding that he hoped that Washington “will continue to support Ukraine and that we can end this war with a dignified peace”.
Since his return to power in January last year, Trump has largely ended direct deliveries of US arms to Kiev in favour of the PURL programme, which allows Europeans to buy weapons and then supply them to Ukraine.
Washington, though, remains a major ally of Kiev, providing it notably with intelligence and access to the Starlink satellite system that allows its frontline troops to communicate.
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‘Amazing job’
At a previous meeting in Washington in October 2025, Zelenskyy failed to convince Trump to provide Ukraine with Tomahawk cruise missiles.
And during heated exchanges in the Oval Office in February that year, both raised their voices during an argument in the full glare of television cameras.
Trump accused Zelenskyy of ingratitude and “gambling with World War Three”.
The US leader has since changed his tone and during their last encounter in Türkiye earlier this month, he offered words of encouragement, saying Zelenskyy had done “an amazing job”.
He also announced his intention to allow Ukraine to produce anti-aircraft Patriot missiles, which are badly needed to face down Russian attacks.
