White House Confirms Trump and Zelenskyy Discussed Possible Strikes on Moscow
The White House has confirmed that President Donald Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy whether Ukraine could strike Moscow and St. Petersburg if Washington provided the necessary weapons — a question raised during a call between the two leaders on July 4, The Gaze reports, citing Newsweek.
According to The Financial Times and The Washington Post, both citing anonymous sources familiar with the conversation, Trump reportedly encouraged Zelenskyy to escalate attacks inside Russia to intensify pressure on Vladimir Putin. The Financial Times quoted Trump as wanting to “make them feel the pain” and push Russia toward peace talks.
The Post reported that Zelenskyy responded by saying Ukraine could carry out such strikes if the U.S. supplied the weapons.
The White House, however, pushed back on how the conversation has been portrayed in the media.
“The Financial Times is notorious for taking words wildly out of context to get clicks because their paper is dying,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt in a statement to Newsweek.
“President Trump was merely asking a question, not encouraging further killing. He’s working tirelessly to stop the killing and end this war.”
The reported conversation comes as Trump adopts a noticeably tougher stance toward the Kremlin. He has recently pledged to provide more Patriot air defense systems and sophisticated offensive weapons to Ukraine — with European NATO allies footing the bill — while warning Moscow of a 100 percent secondary tariff on trade partners unless Putin agrees to peace within 50 days.
Trump, who once sought a conciliatory approach to Russia, now appears increasingly disillusioned.
“My conversations with [Putin] are very pleasant, and then the missiles go off at night,” Trump said during a recent White House meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. “It just keeps going on and on and on.”
As The Gaze previously reported, President Donald Trump welcomed NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte to the White House on Monday, unveiling a new weapons agreement for Ukraine and threatening Russia with steep tariffs if peace talks fail within 50 days.