Zelenskyy and Trump discuss Patriot missiles and peace talks as Ukraine loses key ally in Senate

White House meeting

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the White House on Tuesday ahead of the funeral of Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch backer of Kyiv who died on July 11. Zelenskyy met President Donald Trump behind closed doors for just over an hour, with no reporters present. The encounter was one of two high-stakes meetings Trump held that day, the other with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described both sessions as "positive and productive".

Good meeting with President Trump in the Oval Office. Thank you for all that we are doing together to protect the lives of Ukrainians and achieve peace.

Zelenskyy said on Telegram that the two leaders discussed Trump's pledge, made at this month's NATO summit in Ankara, to grant Ukraine a license to produce Patriot interceptor missiles. Ukraine has run chronically short of the systems, the only weapon in its arsenal capable of downing Russian ballistic missiles. Zelenskyy later told X that they had also talked about "several ideas that could help" and met with Lockheed Martin representatives to advance joint production of Patriots and other systems.

Aid bottleneck

Zelenskyy's push for accelerated military assistance collides with a slow Pentagon spending plan. A letter from the Pentagon to lawmakers showed that the Trump administration does not plan to finish spending $400 million authorized for Ukraine aid until fiscal year 2029. The letter has drawn criticism from Democrats and some Republicans, who say Kyiv is running dangerously low on the missiles it needs to defend cities against escalating Russian drone and ballistic missile attacks. Russia said on Tuesday that more than 390 Ukrainian drones targeted the Moscow region overnight.

Thawing relations

Relations between Trump and Zelenskyy, frosty early in Trump's second term after a public berating alongside Vice President JD Vance in February last year, have warmed in recent months. The NATO summit in Ankara earlier in July produced the Patriot license promise, and the two have met several times since. Zelenskyy said after the White House meeting that diplomacy must be reinvigorated, referring to stalled peace talks with Russia. The war, now in its fifth year following Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, has seen both sides intensify long-range strikes amid a diplomatic vacuum.

A loss for Kyiv: Lindsey Graham's funeral

Zelenskyy's visit was timed around the funeral of Senator Lindsey Graham, who died suddenly of a heart ailment at 71. Graham, a South Carolina Republican and defense hawk, visited Ukraine 10 times since the 2022 invasion, most recently on July 10, just a day before his death. He had been running for a fifth term and spent his final days trying to push a bipartisan sanctions package on Russia through the Senate. Graham's passing removes one of Ukraine's most influential advocates at a moment when the administration has pivoted aid decisions to a slower track.

Drone production race

Beyond Patriot missiles, Kyiv and Washington are moving closer to a joint drone production deal. Ukraine is on track to produce six to seven million short-range attack drones this year, while the Pentagon's $1.1 billion program is expected to order nearly 200,000 drones by February 2027. Zelenskyy's team also planned to meet a bipartisan group of senators working on legislation to sanction buyers of Russian oil and gas.