President Volodymyr Zelensky held phone calls Monday with US President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. The Ukrainian leader expressed his gratitude for the announcement of new Patriot air defense missiles coming to Kyiv, both to the President and his special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, with whom Zelensky met on Monday.
In a post on X, Zelensky wrote:
“I spoke with @POTUS. It was a very good conversation. Thank you for the willingness to support Ukraine and to continue working together to stop the killings and establish a lasting and just peace.”
The call came after Trump announced increased tariffs on Russia if no progress is made towards a ceasefire in 50 days.
“We discussed the necessary means and solutions with the President to provide better protection for people from Russian attacks and to strengthen our positions. We are ready to work as productively as possible to achieve peace.”
Zelensky also had a separate call with NATO Secretary General Rutte, who was in Washington to meet Trump Monday. Zelensky wrote in a post on X that Rutte had informed him about plans for cooperation with the US, Germany, and Norway to deliver additional Patriots to Ukraine.
“We appreciate the readiness to provide additional Patriots, and the U.S., Germany, and Norway are already working together on this. There will also be deliveries of other weapons to protect the lives of our people and repel Russian assaults. It’s important to increase pressure on Russia for the sake of peace and to save lives. Thank you, Mark!”
After his separate call with Rutte, floating the idea of 100-percent secondary tariffs on Moscow if it did not cooperate, Trump said, “We’re very, very unhappy with them, and we’re going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in about 50 days, tariffs at about 100 percent you’d call them secondary tariffs.”
Zelensky has been pleading with Washington for much-needed Patriot missiles for months if not years. On Sunday, Trump agreed to send Kyiv an undisclosed number of air defense batteries, first-in-class systems produced by US-based Raytheon (RTX Corporation), which cost about $1 billion each.
Germany, which had previously pledged such systems to Ukraine, backed off on the commitment simultaneously to Trump’s announcement, saying Berlin only had six such functional systems at its disposal after offering two of them to Kyiv already.
Zelensky also described his meeting with Kellogg on Monday as a “productive conversation.”
“We discussed the path to peace and what we can practically do together to bring it closer,” Zelensky wrote on social media. “This includes strengthening Ukraine’s air defense, joint production, and procurement of defense weapons in collaboration with Europe. And of course, sanctions against Russia and those who help it.
“We hope for US leadership, as it is clear that Moscow will not stop unless its unreasonable ambitions are curbed through strength,” Zelensky added.
“I thank Keith Kellogg for this visit to Ukraine. I am grateful to President Trump for the important signals of support and the positive decisions for both our countries. We deeply value the support of the American people.”