US President Donald Trump is highly unlikely to transfer Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine during his upcoming meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. White House sources report this, emphasizing that the decision is linked to Trump's plans to meet personally with Vladimir Putin in Budapest to discuss a settlement of the conflict in Ukraine. However, Trump may be hedging his bets by ordering preparations for the transfer of the missiles in case the negotiations fail.

According to Axios, Trump just concluded a phone call with Putin, during which the leaders agreed to a summit in Budapest, where ending the conflict will be a key topic. This makes the delivery of Tomahawk missiles—missiles with a range of up to 2500 kilometers and capable of reaching Moscow—a premature step that could derail diplomacy. Zelenskyy, arriving at the White House tomorrow, has championed these missiles as "additional pressure" on the Kremlin, but Trump, like Putin, sees them as a "new stage of escalation."