President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are set to meet at the White House on Friday to discuss big-ticket defensive items and strategies to better counter Russia’s war.
The meeting, announced earlier this week, comes just one day after Trump held a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Zelenskyy has made clear his chief aim is to secure better defenses for Ukraine amid Russia’s constant aerial bombardments of civilian targets like cities, energy infrastructure and hospitals, and his big-ticket item is the American Tomahawk missile.
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With the capability of hitting beyond even Moscow, the sophisticated high-precision long-range cruise missile could increase Ukraine’s ability to strike further into Russia and better target not only its military complex, but its oil industry, which has largely funded Putin’s war chest.
But one security expert warned that “no one weapon system is going to be a wonder weapon or a game changer, per se,” John Hardie, deputy director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ (FDD) Russia Program told Fox News Digital.
Hardie said that countering Russia’s war must be done through a series of tactics which includes increased missile capability for Ukraine, but also by targeting Russia’s war chest by undermining its economy through sanctions, hitting its oil industry and crippling its defense complex.
Thirdly, Ukraine must be better equipped in its war effort on the front lines.
“Putin still seems to believe, or chooses to believe, that he can grind down Ukrainian forces in this war of attrition, and that eventually that will give him a pathway to accomplishing some of his goals,” Hardie said. “He’s going to have to be disabused of that.
“The goal should be to exhaust the Russian military’s offensive potential,” he added.
Hardie also pointed out that while big ticket items like Tomahawks would be useful for Ukraine given its long-range and heavy payload capabilities, there are items that Kyiv could more efficiently employ for its daily needs.
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“We kind of fixate on that one system, but there are a broad range of things that the United States can do to enhance Ukrainian long-range precision strike capabilities,” he said.
Systems like the Extended-Range Attack Munition (ERAM) missiles, which are a more affordable long-range cruise missile specifically designed by the U.S. for Ukraine, have been slated to arrive beginning in October.
Hardie also pointed to defensive systems which are useful and needed to better protect against Russia’s constant missile and drone attacks, like Patriot battery systems.
Following his call with Putin on Thursday, Trump said “great progress” was made, but he did not provide any specifics on how progress was achieved, though the pair agreed to once again meet in person, this time in Hungary.
Though Trump said the pair discussed U.S.-Russia trade, he did not say whether U.S. aid to Ukraine was discussed, which appeared to be the impetus for the call earlier this week when he told reporters he “might have to speak” with Putin regarding whether he wanted U.S. Tomahawks near his borders, in what appeared to be an implied threat.
But neither Tomahawks nor defensive aid were mentioned in the president’s account of the talks.
Though, according to Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, the issue was discussed and opposed by Putin.
“Vladimir Putin reiterated his thesis that Tomahawks won’t change the situation on the battlefield, but they will cause significant damage to relations between our countries. Not to mention the prospects for a peaceful settlement,” he told reporters following the call, according to Reuters.
