(MENAFN- Live Mint) Day after Donald Trump held talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to discuss the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the US President has indicated that he's not ready to agree to give long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Kyiv.

The indication has come ahead of Volodymyr Zelensky's meeting with Donald Trump at the White House and after Putin warned that selling long-range missiles to Ukraine could further strain the US-Russian relationship.

In recent days, Trump had shown an openness to selling Ukraine Tomahawk cruise missiles. But after his call with Putin, Trump appeared to indicate that he might just not.

“We need Tomahawks for the United States of America too. We have a lot of them, but we need them. I mean we can't deplete our country,” Donald Trump said.

Zelensky has been requesting weapons that would enable Ukrainian forces to strike deep into Russian territory, targeting key military sites, energy facilities, and critical infrastructure. He argued that such attacks could pressure Putin to take Trump's calls for direct negotiations to end the war more seriously.

Also Read | US may send Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine - Donald Trump warns Russia's Putin of 'new step of aggression'

Zelensky is looking to offer to store American liquefied natural gas in Ukraine's gas storage facilities, which would allow for American presence in the European energy market.

But, during the call, Putin's foreign policy adviser said that Vladimir Putin warned Donald Trump that supplying Kyiv with the Tomahawks long range missiles“won't change the situation on the battlefield, but would cause substantial damage to the relationship between our countries.”

Meanwhile, Zelensky insisted that the threat of Tomahawks had forced Moscow to negotiate.“We can already see that Moscow is rushing to resume dialogue as soon as it hears about Tomahawks,” he said.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also echoed the claims that talk of providing Tomahawks had already served a purpose by pushing Putin into talks.

“The conclusion is that we need to continue with strong steps. Strength can truly create momentum for peace,” Andrii Sybiha said.

Trump-Putin meeting

Following Thursday's call with Putin, Trump announced he would soon meet the Russian leader in Budapest, Hungary, to discuss ways to end the war. They also agreed that their senior aides, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, would meet next week at a yet-to-be-disclosed location

Zelensky is also making a trip to Washington to meet Donald Trump – his third since Trump's return to office.“We expect that the momentum of curbing terror and war that succeeded in the Middle East will help to end Russia's war against Ukraine,” Zelensky said on social media platform X.

(With agency inputs)

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