{"id":168504,"date":"2025-10-18T13:23:44","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T13:23:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-war-live-zelensky-says-putin-is-afraid-of-trump-giving-tomahawks-to-kyiv-the-independent\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T13:23:44","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T13:23:44","slug":"ukraine-war-live-zelensky-says-putin-is-afraid-of-trump-giving-tomahawks-to-kyiv-the-independent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/ukraine-war-live-zelensky-says-putin-is-afraid-of-trump-giving-tomahawks-to-kyiv-the-independent\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine war live: Zelensky says Putin is \u2018afraid\u2019 of Trump giving Tomahawks to Kyiv – The Independent"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Ukraine\u2019s president is lobbying Trump to provide the missiles to help in the war against Russia
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Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a> has said that Vladimir Putin<\/a> is \u201cafraid\u201d of Donald Trump<\/a> supplying Kyiv<\/a> with potentially game-changing Tomahawk missiles<\/a>, despite the US<\/a> President refusing to offer a firm commitment during a meeting at the White House.
The Ukrainian leader was in Washington DC for a high-stakes meeting to strengthen US support for Kyiv, eight months after he was hounded out at a disastrous Oval Office summit in February<\/a>.
In an interview with NBC News’s Meet the Press, Zelensky said he believed that Putin was fearful of the consequences of Ukraine<\/a> having Tomahawks.
“It’s good that President Trump<\/a> didn’t say ‘no’, but for today, didn’t say ‘yes’,” he said about the supply of the missiles. “I think that Putin [is] afraid that United States will deliver us Tomahawks. And I think that he [is] really afraid that we will use them.\u201d
Trump welcomed Zelensky on Friday and praised his \u201cstrength\u201d, but remained guarded on the issue of giving Ukraine Tomahawk<\/a> cruise missiles as it could lead to \u201ca bigger escalation\u201d in the war.
Russian forces seized the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, in the first weeks of Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
It is not currently generating electricity but relies on external power to keep the nuclear material cool and prevent a serious accident.
However, repair works have now begun on damaged off-site power lines after a four-week outage.
Ukraine<\/a> cannot win its war with Russia<\/a> and should negotiate peace terms with the Kremlin, according to Britain\u2019s most senior army officer.
Field Marshal Lord Richards said Kyiv will not be able to drive Vladimir Putin<\/a>\u2019s soldiers out of Ukraine<\/a> without the help of Nato<\/a> forces – who won\u2019t get involved on the ground.
Lord Richards, who was promoted to UK military\u2019s most senior \u201cfive star\u201d rank earlier this year and led Nato<\/a> forces in during its troops surge in Afghanistan, said Ukraine\u2019s allies have failed Kyiv.
\u201cWhat we have done in the case of Ukraine is encourage Ukraine to fight, but not given them the means to win,\u2019 the former chief of the defence staff<\/a> told The Independent\u2019s<\/em> podcast World of Trouble.<\/em>
Reflecting on the Ukraine\u2019s chances of success against Russia<\/a>, he said: \u201cMy view is that they would not win.\u201d
You can read our full exclusive story below.
The Russian Defence Ministry claims that its forces had taken control of three more villages in eastern Ukraine.
According to the Russian ministry, Moscow’s troops took control of Pryvillia in the Dnipropetrovsk region, where Moscow’s forces have established a foothold in recent weeks.
Also captured were the villages of Pishchane, near the virtually destroyed town of Kupiansk that Russia sees as a target in its drive westward, and Tykhe, just inside the border with Russia.
The Ukrainian military noted fighting around at least two of the settlements, but made no acknowledgement that any of them had changed hands.
Volodymyr Zelensky<\/a> has said that Vladimir Putin<\/a> is \u201cafraid\u201d of Donald Trump<\/a> supplying Kyiv<\/a> with potentially game-changing Tomahawk missiles<\/a>, despite the US<\/a> President refusing to offer a firm commitment during a meeting at the White House.
In an interview with NBC News’s Meet the Press, Zelensky said he believed that Putin was fearful of the consequences of Ukraine<\/a> having Tomahawks.
“It’s good that President Trump<\/a> didn’t say ‘no’, but for today, didn’t say ‘yes’,” he said about the supply of the missiles. “I think that Putin [is] afraid that United States will deliver us Tomahawks. And I think that he [is] really afraid that we will use them.\u201d
Putin sneaked in a call to the White House before Zelensky arrived in the US, turning Trump back to his side after the president drifted towards democracy. Our world affairs editor Sam Kiley in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, explains how.
Russia’s Defence Ministry has claimed that its forces have captured the village of Pleshchiivka in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.
The Independent<\/em> could not independently confirm the battlefield report.
Repair work has started on damaged off-site power lines to Ukraine\u2019s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant following a four-week outage, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog has said.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said work began after local ceasefire zones were established.
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Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged inSwipe for next article Ukraine\u2019s president is lobbying Trump to provide the missiles to help in the war against Russia From reproductive rights to climate change […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":168505,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-168504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}