US President Donald Trump has said Ukraine wants to go on the offensive ahead of his meeting Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, where the potential supply of long-range Tomahawk missiles is expected to be on the table.

“We’re going to talk about war with him,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, referring to Zelensky.

“They want to go on the attack,” he added. “I will decide on that, but that is their wish,” he noted.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump have said they will discuss Tomahawk cruise missiles and air defense systems when they meet Friday at the White House. The Ukrainian delegation to the US has already met this week with Raytheon, maker of both the Tomahawk missiles and the Patriot systems.

“Tools like Patriots and Tomahawks can help create a long-term foundation for peace,” Zelensky said in his evening message on Wednesday.

Kiev expects from Friday’s meeting to secure the supply of advanced weapons systems, necessary to carry out a new counterattack against Russian forces.

“We can indeed go on the offensive, it all depends on the weapons we get and the approved plan,” a senior Ukrainian official told POLITICO, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

Beyond the possible supply of Tomahawk missiles, Trump said “other options will be considered.”

Although Kiev has been on the defensive for the past year, defending a 1,250-kilometer front against Russia, the Ukrainian military has in recent weeks managed to launch limited counterattacks and regain ground in the Donetsk and Zaporizhia regions.

However, Russia is making slow progress in the Donetsk, Dnipro and Kharkiv regions, according to Ukrainian research group DeepState. But at a heavy price, as according to a document that Ukrainian intelligence claims contained leaked Russian data, Moscow has lost 281,550 troops in Ukraine in the first eight months of the year.

At the same time, Moscow and Kiev are hitting each other’s energy systems with increasing drone and missile attacks ahead of winter.

Ukraine sees the US’s Tomahawk long-range cruise missiles as a deterrent that would make Moscow think twice before attacking, particularly as it would make clear to the Kremlin that Washington is firmly backing Kiev.
And now the United States seems to be aligning itself with this perception. According to the New York Times, Washington has already drawn up a plan to supply Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine.

“If there is no path to peace in the immediate future, then the United States, along with our allies, will take the necessary steps to impose a cost on Russia for its continued aggression,” US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday.

Trump’s reference that Kiev “wants to go on the offensive” comes days after Valery Zaluzny, the former chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, made a public statement that while limited incursions and counter-offensive operations can be carried out, they rarely produce long-term results.