US President Donald Trump wants to maintain and even extend his unique peacemaking spirit, which he brought back to the White House last January. During his flight to Israel and Egypt to participate in the ceremony intended to seal the deal for ending the war in Gaza, the Republican leader recalled that his next step in that plan is to end the war in Ukraine. As part of that plan, Trump suggested he could tell Russian President Vladimir Putin that he will allow Tomahawk missiles to be sent to kyiv if the war in Ukraine does not end.

“[Ukraine] would like to have Tomahawks. To be honest, maybe they have to talk to Russia about Tomahawks. Do they want Tomahawk missiles heading their way? I don't think so,” he told reporters from the presidential plane.

As in the Middle East—where he bombed Iran this summer—the language of weapons is crucial for Trump to impose his criteria. That's why, on Monday, he once again raised the threat to Putin of delivering the dreaded Tomahawk missiles to kyiv. This is something that the United States, at the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, already did for the first time at the end of September during the UN General Assembly in New York.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump are scheduled to hold a"working lunch" in Washington this coming Friday, a White House official said Monday. The two leaders held talks on both Saturday and Sunday, according to US government sources.

Zelensky celebrated the still uncertain diplomatic achievement of the beginning of the end of the war in Gaza with a message on X. “When peace is achieved in one part of the world, hope is rekindled in other regions,” he wrote. “If a ceasefire and peace have been achieved in the Middle East, the leadership and determination of global players can certainly work for us in Ukraine as well.”

In previous days, the Ukrainian president had declared that if Trump, who promised to end the war in Ukraine on his first day in the Oval Office, were to achieve a ceasefire with Russia, kyiv would not hesitate to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize. The Republican has been claiming for years that he deserves it. Last Friday, he was left without it again, when the Norwegian committee opted to award the prize to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on Trump's threat of more missiles for Ukraine, although he did point out that the use of such weapons, with a range of up to 2,500 kilometers, would require the involvement of US troops, according to Reuters. Former President Dmitry Medvedev had previously warned that the delivery of Tomahawk missiles, capable of carrying nuclear warheads, could have dire consequences for everyone—especially for Trump.

The Republican's announcement coincides with the visit to kyiv of the High Representative for Foreign Policy of the European Union, Kaja Kallas, where she announced the first 10 million euros to provide funds to the special tribunal that must judge the Russian invasion of Ukraine and"guarantee that those responsible for the crimes of aggression do not escape justice."

According to Kallas, the war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine are"obvious." "Unpunished crimes only encourage new atrocities," added the European Foreign Minister, who arrives in Ukraine at a time when Zelensky's government is demanding more financial and military aid, as well as support to contain the attacks against the energy sector that Moscow is carrying out on the eve of the coldest months of the year. At the same time, the local army has intensified its attacks on refineries and energy facilities on Russian territory or in occupied areas since August.

The EU is aware that Moscow has intensified its attacks against civilians and energy infrastructure, the head of European diplomacy recalled during a speech at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where she was accompanied by her Ukrainian counterpart, Andrii Sybiha. In this regard, Kallas announced the mobilization of 800 million euros to confront this offensive, which follows a Russian strategy already deployed in previous winters since it launched the major invasion in February 2022.

Shelters and winter equipment

The High Representative of the Twenty-Seven also announced the sending of another 100 million euros for generators, shelters, and winter equipment. She also put 2 billion euros on the table for drones, the weaponry that has gained increasing prominence in the conflict in recent months. Another six million will be allocated to address the forced deportation of Ukrainian minors carried out by Russian authorities and for victims of sexual violence. At the same time, she insisted that they are trying to ensure that Russia, thanks to its frozen assets, and not Brussels, bears the main financial burden of the war.

Silence the guns, as Trump aspires, is very different from ending Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Moscow has held power in approximately 20% of its neighboring country's territory since its troops began advancing in 2014 into the Crimean peninsula and the eastern Donbas region, comprising Luhansk and Donetsk. That's not to mention launching mechanisms within the international justice system to determine responsibility for the crimes being committed. As in the case of Israel and Hamas, this isn't something that will happen in the short term. In any case, Brussels wants to drive this process forward, hence the announcement of the first ten million.

For months, Trump has remained aligned with Putin, who has even gone so far as to lament that the American has not received the Nobel Peace Prize. But suddenly, as is the case with the American president's frequent changes of opinion, he announced via his social media platform, Truth, that kyiv could indeed recover all of the territory invaded by Moscow. He did so almost at the same time as the announcement of the Tomahawk missiles.

Last Friday, in another demonstration of the White House's unpredictable swings on this issue, First Lady Melania Trump asserted that she has maintained an"open channel of communication" with Putin since August, when the Russian and US presidents met in Alaska. The goal: to repatriate Ukrainian children forcibly transferred to Russia. Some, the First Lady said, have already been returned."In fact, eight children have been reunited with their families in the last 24 hours," she added.

In kyiv, Kallas echoed Trump's remarks, emphasizing that, with the support of the EU and NATO, Russia's summer offensive had been a failure, as"its limited territorial gains have been accompanied by a high number of casualties and a high cost."

This week, a Ukrainian delegation headed by Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, along with the head of the Presidential Office, Andriy Yermak, and the representative for sanctions policy, Vladyslav Vlasyuk, will hold several meetings in the United States. On the agenda are issues such as strengthening air defense and offensive capabilities; strengthening energy infrastructure to bolster resilience for winter; and sanctions to increase pressure on Russia, Yermak recalled this Monday.