Trump Has 'Productive' Talks With Zelenskyy And Netanyahu, France Wildfires

**Leila Fadel** (0:02)
President Trump's support for Ukraine seems to be growing.

**Michelle Martin** (0:05)
First, the approval to build patriot missiles at the NATO Summit, and now a cordial Oval Office meeting with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

**Leila Fadel** (0:12)
That's Michel Martin, I'm Leila Fadel, and this is Up First from NPR News. The relationship between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the other hand has been rocky.

**Donald Trump** (0:25)
They're making a lot of decisions and disagreeing on a lot of decisions.

**Leila Fadel** (0:28)
How could this affect the US war with Iran?

**Michelle Martin** (0:30)
And in France, raging wildfires have forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes. Firefighters are working around the clock to contain the fires, but a new heat wave is threatening to undermine their work. Stay with us. We'll give you news you need to start your day.
President Trump hosted two foreign leaders at the White House on Tuesday. Both are dealing with war at home. Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

**Leila Fadel** (0:59)
Trump's relationship with Netanyahu has faced increasing strain, while his ties with Zelenskyy have steadily improved. We're going to talk about both meetings.

**Michelle Martin** (1:07)
To start, we're joined by NPR's Greg Myhre, who is in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv. Greg, good morning.

**Greg Myhre** (1:12)
Hi, Michelle.

**Michelle Martin** (1:12)
So what are you hearing about how the Trump-Zelenskyy meeting went?

**Greg Myhre** (1:16)
By all accounts, positive. We all remember the big blow up they had in the Oval Office last year, but they've met several times since, including twice this month, and they've been steadily rebuilding the relationship. Trump has been treating Zelenskyy with more respect, especially as Ukraine has gained momentum with its punishing, long-range drone attacks against Russia.
Now, there were no TV cameras at the meeting yesterday, which was closed to the press and Trump hasn't commented, but Zelenskyy called it a good meeting. He also received a warm welcome from more than 60 senators from both parties. So the general tone keeps improving, though Ukraine is looking for more, namely, weapons.

**Michelle Martin** (2:00)
Yeah, but Trump has effectively cut off additional military aid to Ukraine. Is there any sign of change on this front?

**Greg Myhre** (2:07)
No, and not in terms of the US directly sending weapons to Ukraine. But Trump does appear to be following through on an offer he made to Zelenskyy earlier this month. He said Ukraine can have a license to build its own Patriot air defense missiles.
And right after Zelenskyy wrapped up the meeting with Trump, he headed to talks with executives at Lockheed Martin, which makes the Patriots. Now Ukraine has become a world leader in making drones, but making the Patriot air defense missile is a very complex task and it could take years. So this is by no means a quick fix.

**Michelle Martin** (2:42)
Can you give us a sense of what it's like to be in Ukraine with these regular air strikes?

**Greg Myhre** (2:47)
Yeah, the Russians fire drones and missiles all over Ukraine every night. Ukraine says it shoots down around 90% of the drones with its own interceptor drones. And Ukraine also had enough Patriots and other weapons to shoot down most incoming Russian missiles, but now a much higher percentage of those Russian ballistic missiles are reaching the targets because Ukraine is just low on the Patriots.
Now Kyiv has the best air defenses in the country and previously you could be pretty confident that Ukraine could stop most, that not all the attacks on the city. But now when the air raid sirens start howling in the middle of the night, there is a much higher chance that some of those missiles will hit the city and other parts of Ukraine. And this is all based on the figures that Ukraine's military puts out daily.

**Michelle Martin** (3:35)
Now Craig, you know we usually treat the wars in Ukraine and in Iran as entirely separate conflicts, but we've seen some overlap recently. Can you tell us about that?

**Greg Myhre** (3:46)
Yeah, sure. Zelenskyy said Ukraine carried out a long-range air strike Saturday that hit an Iranian boat in the Caspian Sea that was carrying military cargo to Russia. Now we don't independently know what was on that ship, but Russia and Iran have had a military partnership that goes back decades.
Iran initially threatened to retaliate, but now says it's not seeking to escalate this episode. Now, separately, Zelenskyy also said Russia is sharing satellite data with Iran on the location of US troops in the Middle East. He says this allows Iran to carry out more precise attacks on the Americans. And Trump was asked about this recently, and he said he would check with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.