Zelensky suggests Ukraine could provide drones to the US in exchange for long-range Tomahawk missiles, during talks with Trump at the White House
The Ukrainian president congratulates Trump on the Gaza ceasefire deal, and tells him: "I think we can end this war with your help"
Trump warns that giving Ukraine Tomahawk missiles "could mean bigger escalation" and that "a lot of bad things can happen"
The US president earlier signalled he might be willing to give Tomahawks to Ukraine, but after speaking to Vladimir Putin yesterday said: "We need them too... so I don't know what we can do about that"
Trump and Putin agreed to meet in Hungary during their phone call, with fresh talks between the leaders' advisers planned for as early as next week
As Zelensky prepares to depart Washington DC after meeting with Trump, he will head back to a country torn apart by constant bombardment.
The pictures below show the devastation that Russian strikes left in the Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Druzhkivka last night.
Image source, Getty Images
Image source, Getty Images
Image source, Getty ImagesWhile we wait to hear more from the leaders after their lunch meeting, let's take a look back at what we know about the Russia-Ukraine war.
Fighting has raged in Ukraine since Russia launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Over the past year, Russian forces have slowly expanded the amount of territory they control, mostly in the east of Ukraine, and have continued their recent barrage of air strikes on Kyiv and other key Ukrainian cities.
In eastern Ukraine, Russia's war machine has been churning mile by mile through the wide open fields of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions - also known as the Donbas - surrounding and overwhelming villages and towns.
It has been trying to gain full control of the area along with two more regions to the west - Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
Further north, Russia has been pushing towards Kupyansk in the east of the Kharkiv region, as part of its efforts to capture the whole of Luhansk and encircle northern Donetsk.
Meanwhile, Russia has continued to bomb Ukrainian cities, launching 574 drones and 40 missiles on the night of 20 August, external - which the Institute for the Study of War described as the third-largest strike of the war so far.
It has also targeted Ukraine's rail infrastructure - a central pillar of Ukraine's war effort and a powerful national symbol of resilience - with multiple attacks in recent months.
Pavel Aksenov
BBC News Russian
The main obstacle is the lack of launchers for these cruise missiles in the US.
The BGM-109 Tomahawk is a naval missile launched from the MK41 vertical launch system, typically mounted on ships and submarines. The Ukrainian Navy does not have the necessary ships to operate these missiles.
Air- and land-launched versions were developed in the 1970s, but the air-launched Tomahawk lost out to competitors, and the land-based version was banned by the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.
In 2019, the INF Treaty ceased to exist, and the US began reviving the Tomahawk land-based mobile launcher program.
The new system is called Typhon, and it entered service with the US Army in 2023. Currently, the US military has at least two Typhon launchers, but it is unlikely to have many more.
Therefore, when discussing the possibility of transferring Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, we must consider whether the Americans hand over weapons that they have only just begun to produce.
The Trump-Zelensky meeting is a working lunch, so with the Q&A and reporters out of the way, what will the two leaders and their entourages be tucking in to?
According to a menu card sitting atop a gilded plate in front of a member of the Ukrainian delegation, they will be served:
Image source, Reuters
Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House
Image source, Bernd Debusmann Jr/BBC NewsI've just left the cabinet room of the White House, where I was standing just inches behind Volodomyr Zelensky and across the table from Donald Trump for the nearly 40 minutes of the Q&A session.
The room, it seemed to me, had an optimistic mood in it, even if there were few concrete answers about what the result of their closed-door meeting would be.
Notably, some of the US cabinet - particularly JD Vance and Marco Rubio - seemed to be smiling at President Trump's answers, and laughing at his jokes.
Early on in the meeting, I asked Trump a question on what he thinks Ukraine's territory will look like after the conflict. Just a few weeks ago, I was there when he told reporters that he believed Ukraine could regain its lost territory - which at the time took me and others by surprise.
Today, he seemed less convinced.
"War is very interesting," he replied curtly. "You just never know with war and peace."
Several questions focused on perhaps the most pressing issue of the day: the potential transfer of Tomahawk weapons to Ukraine.
Curious, I asked Trump whether he believes that that prospect is what is bringing Putin back to the table.
"I can't tell you what's bringing him to the table," he responded, before launching into a long answer on the capabilities and combat use of the missiles.
Taken by itself, that answer does not reveal much. But it was notable that he did not jump into lauding his relationship with Putin, which for months seemed like his go-to response for any question about the Russian leader.
Image source, ReutersTrump and Zelensky have just spoken to the press ahead of a meeting between the two leaders, where the Ukrainian president is expected to ask the US for long-range Tomahawk missiles to aid the war effort.
Here are the major lines from the conversation:
We will bring you more analysis from this meeting. Stay with us.
Tom Bateman
US State Department correspondent
A few quick observations from what we’re hearing from Trump and Zelensky at the White House.
Zelensky is trying to tap into the fact Trump clearly feels buoyant about his Gaza ceasefire; he’s been flattering Trump over that breakthrough and suggesting he can build on the momentum to end Russia’s war on Ukraine.
That plays into the second part of Zelensky's strategy (similar to that of the European countries) to push the idea that the only block to ending the war is Putin - constantly trying to throw Trump’s ball into the Kremlin’s court.
Lastly, the sense of jeopardy for Zelensky remains clear.
Trump hasn’t sounded too hot on Zelensky’s hopes for US-made Tomahawk missiles, at one point appearing to suggest instead he thinks he can end the war without that.
Trump is asked if he still considers Russia to be a "paper tiger" - that is, less threatening than it seems.
He says Putin "should have won the war in a week" had Russia's tanks not "got stuck in the mud".
"In war you have a lot of luck too," he adds.
The press availability has ended - but we're still digesting what we've heard and will bring you some analysis shortly.
Putin 'should've won the war in a week,' Trump tells BBC Ukrainian
Trump tells BBC Putin 'wants to make a deal', cites threat of Tomahawks
The BBC's Bernd Debusman Jr asks Trump if the threat of the US giving Tomahawks to Ukraine is bringing Putin to the table.
Trump says he can't say and that he just wants to make a deal.
Giving Ukraine Tomahawks "could mean bigger escalation, a lot of bad things can happen." He says the US also needs Tomahawks too, and "we don't want to be giving away things that we need to protect our country."
Trump is asked if the momentum from the ceasefire deal in Gaza can be used to strike a deal with Russian and Ukraine.
Trump thinks so. The US president says it was an effort that "nobody thought could be done".
He credits the peace deal to the US strikes on Iran, and says 59 countries were involved.
"We had to set the table properly," he said. "I think the table is set here properly here now too. It'll be a great honour."
Image source, ReutersNow Zelensky, who has sat silently listening to Trump for the last few minutes, is facing questions from reporters.
Zelensky says he and Trump are beginning "to understand each other" and that Trump is "briefed very well" about the battlefield situation.
"I think it really helps," he says. "But we are still in a war."
Trump says the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and the US "have to get together".
"It's the president, the president and the president," Trump says, referring to himself as "the mediator president".
He said it's easier to mediate when the two parties like each other, but says Putin and Zelensky don't, so he plans to give them some space initially.
He brings up his work in the Middle East, saying Putin told him on their call that it was "amazing" he was able to broker a ceasefire.
"He was very generous about that," Trump says.
A reporter asks: what if the US needs the Tomahawk missiles that will be potentially sold to Ukraine?
Trump says that's one of the reasons he wants to end the war - and to do so without Tomahawks.
Zelensky then asks to interject, adding that "this is a technological war", and he needs drones, and other missiles in addition to Tomahawks.
He says he wants to work with Trump to get aid that Ukraine needs and strengthen US production.
Zelensky is asked if he is suggesting some kind of trade or exchange.
He says yes - "we have a big proposition with our drones" - which prompts smiles and nodding from Trump, who says he would be interested in that.
"They make a very good drone," he says.
But Trump adds he also has an obligation to make sure the US is "completely stocked up" on the necessary weaponry.
He adds: "So we're going to be talking about Tomahawks... we'd much rather have them not need Tomahawks, we'd much rather have the war be over."
Zelensky offers Ukraine drones in exchange for US Tomahawk missiles
The BBC's Bernd Debusmann Jr has asked Trump whether he thinks Ukraine still has the chance to retake its territory from Russia.
Trump answers that "you just never know" what might happen in a war.
For context: Trump had previously floated the idea that Ukraine may have to concede some of its territory to Russia - but later said the country could win back land with US and Nato support.
Zelensky is asked if he would consider giving up his request to join Nato in order to end the war.
He says Nato membership is a very important issue for Ukrainians, and it's up to them and Ukraine's allies to decide where the country stands.
"The most important thing for people in Ukraine who are under attack is to have security guarantees," he says.
He adds he wants bilateral security guarantees from Trump.
Zelensky says all sides need to sit down and talk to agree to a ceasefire.
He says Ukraine wants peace, but argues that Putin needs to be "pressured" into ending the war.
Zelensky adds that Ukraine is ready to talk in any format.
Image source, ReutersTrump and Zelensky taking questions from the press in a crowded Cabinet room
Putin wants to end the war in Ukraine, Trump says.
Trump says he spoke with Putin for more than two hours yesterday.
"We went through a lot of details," Trump says of the call. Putin "wants to get it ended. I think that President Zelensky wants to get it ended. Now we have to get it done."
Watch: BBC Ukrainian asks Trump about upcoming meeting with Putin
Trump is asked about his planned meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Hungary.
The US president starts by praising Viktor Orbán, Hungary's prime minister and Putin's closest ally within the European Union.
"[Hungary is] a country that's a safe country, it's done a very good job," Trump tells reporters.
"He's a very good leader in the sense of running his country. He doesn't have a lot of the problems that other countries have."
He is then asked if the meeting would include Zelensky. Trump says that is "to be determined" and adds there is "bad blood" between Putin and Zelenksy.
"We want to make it comfortable for everybody," Trump says. "We'll be involved in threes, but it may be separated."
Trump is asked what he would think about Ukraine using long-range missiles to strike deeper into Russia.
"We'll be talking about that," he says. "It's an escalation, but we'll be talking about it."
As a reminder, Ukraine is pushing for the US to provide Tomahawk missiles capable of striking targets nearly 2,000km (1,200 miles) away.
Image source, ReutersUS President Donald Trump meets with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Cabinet room of the White House
Zelensky thanks his hosts and congratulates Trump for the Gaza ceasefire deal.
"I think we can end this war with your help," Zelensky says. He adds that Russia isn't having a lot of successes on the battlefield.
The Ukrainian president says he had meetings with some American energy companies who are ready to invest when the war is over.
Trump compliments Zelensky's "very stylish jacket" before they start taking questions.