Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy are set to meet later today

**Anton Savage** (0:01)
Newstalk Breakfast with Anton Savage in association with AIR.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is going to be meeting Donald Trump at the White House today. This comes after Zelenskyy said he will direct Ukraine's intelligence services to share information regarding Russia's assistance of Iran amid the ongoing Iranian conflict with the US. I'm joined this morning by Emmanuelle Chaze, Ukraine correspondent for France 24 Emmanuelle, I get the sense that there is a more benign attitude from the White House towards Zelenskyy in this visit than there would have been in previous visits. Is that sense misplaced?

**Emmanuelle Chaze** (0:48)
No, indeed, that would be quite a different tone than what we saw when Volodymyr Zelenskyy came to the White House in February 2025 And this moment that really broke, if you will, the relation between Washington and Kiev for a while. And then there were amends made.
There was a meeting, a particularly important, significant meeting between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Vatican. And ever since, the relationship between the two men has seemed to improve. And indeed, this visit is quite different. There will also be different interests at stake. It's also on the part of Washington at the time when the US also seeks to develop, for example, its drone manufacturers and Ukraine being an expert in that due to the circumstances, there's a mutual interest for that meeting.

**Anton Savage** (1:43)
And of course, it is significant that it is the funeral of Senator Lindsey Graham. That is the reason for, or part of the reason for, Volodymyr Zelenskyy's attendance in Washington. Because he was one of the most significant pro-Ukraine voices and had the year of the president.

**Emmanuelle Chaze** (2:00)
Absolutely. And Volodymyr Zelenskyy attending this funeral just says how important Senator Graham was for Kyiv. And also, you know, Volodymyr Zelenskyy during this visit, he will undoubtedly also meet other senators, other US officials, not just Donald Trump, not just the administration, but to try and also, you know, bring Kyiv's perspective to more senators at a moment that is really a key moment for Ukraine, I would say, because for the past few weeks, we've seen Ukraine really taking the advantage on the ground, especially with drone warfare, with mid-range strike, with long-range strike, sorry. And yeah, it comes at a key, at a crucial time for Ukraine.

**Anton Savage** (2:46)
And what's the ask from Zelenskyy? Because obviously there are layers of support that he would wish were greater, that there would be direct arm supply, that there would be an extension of time or an extension of the length of time that the financial support would be given. What is it that he thinks is possible to achieve in this meeting?

**Emmanuelle Chaze** (3:05)
So, you know, with Donald Trump, we've seen it on the diplomatic stage. Everything comes down to what he feels towards the topic. And right now in Ukraine, we've talked about it. There's a lot of strikes, missile strikes that are difficult to counter for Ukraine because there's not enough intercepting means, not enough missiles, patriot missiles to intercept ballistic Russian missiles. And Volodymyr Zelenskyy, his main goal is to try to convince the US to try and do more in that field. We know that there might be this US license to produce patriot missiles on the Ukrainian soil, but even if this license indeed is granted and is allows the production quite quickly, time for settle the production, to set up the production, time to produce sufficient missiles, this will take months if not years.
So the goal for Volodymyr Zelenskyy is to try and show to Washington the urgency to help Ukraine to try and counter those missile strikes from Russia.

**Anton Savage** (4:08)
Now, what about the intelligence services information in relation to Russia assisting Iran? Because obviously this president is more benign towards the Russian administration than any in recent memory, even particularly throwing that red carpet welcome in the Alaska summit. Is there any chance that Zelenskyy will be successful in driving a wedge between Trump and Putin?

**Emmanuelle Chaze** (4:32)
Well, I don't think this is the main goal of the Ukrainian president. He's witnessed the relationship between Washington and Moscow, and as for any country, he cannot really influence much. He cannot really interfere in the relationships between two other countries that will be interfering at a level that is not his. However, he can show the Ukrainian perspective. We know that Donald Trump was really moved when he saw strikes on civilians, when Volodymyr Zelenskyy showed him pictures from his phone, when there was that personal interaction.
I guess he will try to present this perspective. Lately, Russia has really increased its amount of strikes against civilians, not just with missiles against Kiev, but also in Kharkiv using FPV drones to single out, to target regular civilians just driving a car. They also bombed a lot of petrol stations. So all that does are civilian infrastructure, those are civilians being impacted, and perhaps sharing what's happening at that level will show Donald Trump that really Russia has no intention of seizing its aggression at the moment.