Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he believes that US President Donald Trump can secure peace in Ukraine using the same tactic he used in the Middle East in an interview with Fox News on Sunday.
"I think this Israel success, and of course it gives signals for us and hope that with such pressure, what President Trump used in Middle East to make peace, and I hope that he will use the same instruments, even more, to pressure [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to stop his war in Ukraine," Zelensky said.
However, the Ukrainian leader said that he believes Moscow is “exploiting” the attention around the Gaza ceasefire to heavily strike Ukraine. Zelensky reportedly discussed this with Trump and French President Macron on Sunday.
He also added that Ukraine would only use Tomahawk missiles to pursue military goals and not attack civilians in Russia. The Kremlin has recently said that if Kyiv were to receive these weapons, Moscow would consider it an escalation of the three-year-old war.
Ukraine could receive Tomahawk missiles, Trump says
Zelensky also said he spoke with Trump on Sunday for the second time in two days, discussing strengthening of Kyiv's air defense, resilience and long-range capabilities.
"We also discussed many details related to the energy sector. President Trump is well informed about everything that is happening. We agreed to continue our dialogue, and our teams are doing their preparations," Zelensky said on X.
Later, the US president said that he would consider sending Kyiv Tomahawk missiles as a threat to Russian President Putin.
"Yeah, I might tell him (Putin), if the war is not settled, we may very well do it,” he said. "We may not, but we may do it. … Do they want to have Tomahawks going in their direction? I don’t think so."
Reuters contributed to this report.