Volodymyr Zelensky is due to hold talks with US President Donald Trump at the White House as Ukraine seeks firmer commitments on strengthening its defences against ballistic missiles, BBC News reported.
The Ukrainian president has said peace must be brought closer and is expected to raise earlier US support for Kyiv being granted a licence to produce Patriot interceptor missiles. Zelensky has said Ukraine urgently needs interceptors after recent Russian ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv.
Patriot systems have long been a priority for Ukraine, but the interceptors are in limited supply after the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. BBC News reported that producing PAC-2 and PAC-3 interceptors in Ukraine would require a complex political, legal and technical process.
A delegation from US manufacturer Raytheon visited Kyiv last week. Zelensky said the company had shown “readiness to take our partnership to an even higher level”.
The visit comes as Moscow’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said more than 390 Ukrainian drones targeted the Russian capital region between Monday evening and Tuesday morning local time, with most intercepted by air defences. BBC Verify confirmed footage showing damage to a high-rise building in Chekhov, south of Moscow, and a warehouse fire in Berezhki to the west. Local officials in Chekhov said there were no casualties.
Since Zelensky last spoke to Trump in early July, Ukraine has repeatedly struck logistics hubs, including sites belonging to Russian e-commerce company Wildberries, according to BBC News.
Trump is also due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after speaking with Zelensky. Both leaders are in Washington to attend the funeral of Senator Lindsey Graham, who died this month aged 71.
Zelensky has accused Iran of being a direct accomplice in Russia’s war against Ukraine and said Ukrainian intelligence has evidence that Russia shared satellite imagery with Tehran. Trump said he would ask Vladimir Putin about the claim.
Speaking at the Kremlin on Monday, Putin told members of Russia’s Duma that the country’s enemies were using “terrorist methods” against civilians, but said they would not break the Russian people. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said freezing the war was impossible given Kyiv’s position, after Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev suggested renewed negotiations based on the Istanbul talks that followed Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion.
