Zelensky Speaks After Trump Meeting
BBC News
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Zelensky suggests Ukraine could provide drones to the US in exchange for long-range Tomahawk missiles, during talks with Trump at the White House
The Ukrainian president congratulates Trump on the Gaza ceasefire deal, and tells him: "I think we can end this war with your help"
Trump warns that giving Ukraine Tomahawk missiles "could mean bigger escalation" and that "a lot of bad things can happen"
The US president earlier signalled he might be willing to give Tomahawks to Ukraine, but after speaking to Vladimir Putin yesterday said: "We need them too… so I don't know what we can do about that"
Trump and Putin agreed to meet in Hungary during their phone call, with fresh talks between the leaders' advisers planned for as early as next week
Edited by Caitlin Wilson, with Bernd Debusmann Jr reporting from the White House
Zelensky says for the sake of each nation, he agrees with Trump that he and Putin must stop fighting and start talking about a just and lasting peace.
He says he's open to bilateral or trilateral meetings, or any formats that can "bring us closer to peace".
Speaking in Ukrainian, President Zelensky tells reporters that Ukraine is unable to fight using its current air defence systems against Russian ballistic missiles.
"It is very difficult," he says.
Zelensky adds that Ukraine needs to put pressure on Russia in the form of a weapons package to achieve its objectives.
The Ukrainian president later adds in English that he hopes the US can take Ukrainian drones. It comes after he suggested Ukraine could offer its drones in exchange for Tomahawk missiles.
Zelensky appears to suggest there was no progress in his appeal to the US for Tomahawk long-range missiles.
"This is the position of the Americans for today but nobody cancelled this topic," he says. "We have to work on it more."
Zelensky is asked why he thinks Putin is avoiding him.
"It's not a secret," Zelensky answers. As Trump said, Putin "hates me".
When asked if he hates Putin back, Zelensky responds that Putin wants to kill all of his people, so it's understandable that he would have a similar feeling towards Putin.
"It's not about feelings… they [Russians] attacked us – and it's the enemy…. certainly, we hate the enemy", Zelensky adds in Ukrainian.
President Zelensky is asked about his thoughts on whether Ukraine can take back the territory it lost from Russia.
He answers that it is a very difficult and sensitive topic.
Russia wants to occupy the whole of Ukraine, he says. In the event of a ceasefire, he says that Russia wants a deal signed that sees it keep territory it has gained. This, he says, is opposite to his position on the matter.
"First, we need a ceasefire," he adds. "So we need to sit and speak and understand where we are. That is the most important step."
Zelensky adds that Trump understands the importance of territory in any ceasefire conversation.
Zelensky apologises for being late to the news conference and says he was speaking on the phone with several allies after his meeting with Trump.
He spoke with the leaders of the EU, Italy, the UK and Nato among others. He says he told them about how the two sides discussed security guarantees.
"We trust President Trump that he wants to finish this war, and it's difficult," Zelensky says.
"It's a very tough solution."
But, he adds, he also knows that brokering a ceasefire in the Middle East was a difficult situation and Trump managed that.
He says he hopes Trump will be able to help end the war in Ukraine as well.
Zelensky says he and Trump talked about long-range weapons, but both decided not to make any public statements about that conversation.
He says this is "because the United States does not want an escalation".
It is unclear if the Ukrainian president means that the weapons are off the table, or if information about the use of missiles will not be discussed publicly.
Zelensky starts speaking Ukrainian at the podium, then says "Oops, sorry, I forgot I'm in the United States" and switches to English.
He tells reporters it was a long and productive meeting with Trump, with lots to discuss.
He thanks Trump and his team for the conversation.
Zelensky has arrived to a podium set up outside the White House to answer questions after his meeting with Trump. You can follow along by clicking watch live at the top of this page.
Trump has left the White House now, heading for his private Mar-a-Lago home in Florida for the weekend.
He did not speak to the assembled press eager to ask questions about his meeting with Zelensky.
It's a beautiful autumn late afternoon here in Washington and we are waiting for Zelensky to speak at a park outside the White House.
News cameras and microphones are being step up now for his first public comments since closed-door discussions with Trump.
You can see his comments by clicking watch live at the top of this page.
Myroslava Petsa
BBC News Ukrainian, reporting from the White House
At this White House meeting, the Ukrainian delegation were treated to a formal lunch of roast chicken and apple and caramel cake with clementine ice cream for dessert – a far cry from the screaming match the world witnessed back in February.
And while toasting and tasting, the American and Ukrainian teams discussed the hit points that Ukraine would like to strike, if the US provides Kyiv with long-range missiles.
Before lunch, the press were able to ask President Trump all sorts of questions. And the main topic of conversation was the Tomahawks – whether or not America was willing to provide them and put more pressure on Putin to engage in real peace negotiations.
We've just seen Zelensky head out the door of the White House to his vehicle, which was waiting just outside.
That marks the end of his closed-door working lunch with Trump, following 40 minutes of questions from the press a little earlier.
As Zelensky prepares to depart Washington DC after meeting with Trump, he will head back to a country torn apart by constant bombardment.
The pictures below show the devastation that Russian strikes left in the Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Druzhkivka last night.
While we wait to hear more from the leaders after their lunch meeting, let's take a look back at what we know about the Russia-Ukraine war.
Fighting has raged in Ukraine since Russia launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Over the past year, Russian forces have slowly expanded the amount of territory they control, mostly in the east of Ukraine, and have continued their recent barrage of air strikes on Kyiv and other key Ukrainian cities.
In eastern Ukraine, Russia's war machine has been churning mile by mile through the wide open fields of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions – also known as the Donbas – surrounding and overwhelming villages and towns.
It has been trying to gain full control of the area along with two more regions to the west – Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
Further north, Russia has been pushing towards Kupyansk in the east of the Kharkiv region, as part of its efforts to capture the whole of Luhansk and encircle northern Donetsk.
Meanwhile, Russia has continued to bomb Ukrainian cities, launching 574 drones and 40 missiles on the night of 20 August, external – which the Institute for the Study of War described as the third-largest strike of the war so far.
It has also targeted Ukraine's rail infrastructure – a central pillar of Ukraine's war effort and a powerful national symbol of resilience – with multiple attacks in recent months.
Pavel Aksenov
BBC News Russian
The main obstacle is the lack of launchers for these cruise missiles in the US.
The BGM-109 Tomahawk is a naval missile launched from the MK41 vertical launch system, typically mounted on ships and submarines. The Ukrainian Navy does not have the necessary ships to operate these missiles.
Air- and land-launched versions were developed in the 1970s, but the air-launched Tomahawk lost out to competitors, and the land-based version was banned by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
In 2019, the INF Treaty ceased to exist, and the US began reviving the Tomahawk land-based mobile launcher program.
The new system is called Typhon, and it entered service with the US Army in 2023. Currently, the US military has at least two Typhon launchers, but it is unlikely to have many more.
Therefore, when discussing the possibility of transferring Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, we must consider whether the Americans hand over weapons that they have only just begun to produce.
The Trump-Zelensky meeting is a working lunch, so with the Q&A and reporters out of the way, what will the two leaders and their entourages be tucking in to?
According to a menu card sitting atop a gilded plate in front of a member of the Ukrainian delegation, they will be served: 
Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House
I've just left the cabinet room of the White House, where I was standing just inches behind Volodomyr Zelensky and across the table from Donald Trump for the nearly 40 minutes of the Q&A session.
The room, it seemed to me, had an optimistic mood in it, even if there were few concrete answers about what the result of their closed-door meeting would be.
Notably, some of the US cabinet – particularly JD Vance and Marco Rubio – seemed to be smiling at President Trump's answers, and laughing at his jokes.
Early on in the meeting, I asked Trump a question on what he thinks Ukraine's territory will look like after the conflict. Just a few weeks ago, I was there when he told reporters that he believed Ukraine could regain its lost territory – which at the time took me and others by surprise.
Today, he seemed less convinced.
"War is very interesting," he replied curtly. "You just never know with war and peace."
Several questions focused on perhaps the most pressing issue of the day: the potential transfer of Tomahawk weapons to Ukraine.
Curious, I asked Trump whether he believes that that prospect is what is bringing Putin back to the table.
"I can't tell you what's bringing him to the table," he responded, before launching into a long answer on the capabilities and combat use of the missiles.
Taken by itself, that answer does not reveal much. But it was notable that he did not jump into lauding his relationship with Putin, which for months seemed like his go-to response for any question about the Russian leader.
Trump and Zelensky have just spoken to the press ahead of a meeting between the two leaders, where the Ukrainian president is expected to ask the US for long-range Tomahawk missiles to aid the war effort.
Here are the major lines from the conversation:
We will bring you more analysis from this meeting. Stay with us.
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