Zelensky expects Trump meeting in late September, says US missile-defense supplies will be the main topic

Why it matters

A direct Zelensky-Trump meeting in late September would be the first such encounter since their July 28 White House meeting and would put Kyiv's pressing need for US ballistic-missile-defense interceptors at the centre of talks. The meeting falls around the UN General Assembly high-level week, giving the encounter an international stage. Washington's reported refusal of a 300-Patriot-missile request shows how the administration is balancing Ukraine's air-defence needs against its own stockpiles, and the envoys' back-to-back Moscow-Kyuly visits, the three-day capital-strike moratorium and a possible trilateral format all point to a renewed diplomatic track.

What happened

On September 8, President Volodymyr Zelensky said he expects to meet US President Donald Trump in the 20s of September, with American anti-ballistic-missile supplies to Ukraine as the main planned topic of conversation. He said Kyiv is short of ballistic-missile interceptors, is developing its own "Freyja"/FREYJA anti-ballistic program and hopes for US and European support.

The announcement followed two days of intense Russian strikes on Kyiv. According to Zelensky, the September 7-8 overnight attack involved about 180 aerial targets — including Oniks, Iskander-M/S-400/KN-23 ballistic missiles, 32 Kh-101 cruise missiles and 166 drones — with Ukrainian forces reporting around 90% intercepted and more than 30 cruise missiles shot down. Casualty figures differ between sources: some report 2 killed and 10 injured, others 2 killed and 12 injured, with fires and debris reported in the Solomianskyi, Darnytskyi, Holosiivskyi, Shevchenkivskyi and Podilskyi districts.

Diplomatic activity has also accelerated. Trump's special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Vladimir Putin in Moscow on September 5 and travelled to Kyiv on September 6 for talks with Zelensky — their first visit to Ukraine since the start of Trump's second presidential term. On September 6, Zelensky held two bilateral rounds with the US delegation and one multilateral round with national-security advisors from the UK, Germany and France. During the envoys' visit the two sides agreed a three-day mutual moratorium on strikes on each other's capitals.

Zelensky said Ukraine and the US are moving toward a trilateral (Ukraine-US-Russia) negotiation format, with possible venues in the UAE, Switzerland or Turkey, and possible agenda items including energy and grain exports, with the humanitarian track — especially prisoner exchanges — as the priority. He said Ukraine received three times fewer BMD missiles this year than last year, with partners citing the Middle East conflict as the reason, and the Financial Times reported that Trump declined a request for 300 Patriot missiles in order to preserve US stockpiles. Witkoff said there was "significant progress" after the Moscow and Kyiv meetings; Kushner said Trump is seeking not only an end to the war but also long-term peace, and that ending the war before winter is not guaranteed but the US is working to create conditions for it.

The Trump meeting is expected to coincide with the start of the UN General Assembly high-level week in New York on September 22.

How Ukrainian sources describe it

Ukrainian sources frame the upcoming Zelensky-Trump meeting as Kyiv's main chance to secure the US ballistic-missile interceptors it urgently needs, with Zelensky publicly pressing the case even as Patriot supplies have reportedly been cut back and three times fewer BMD missiles arrived this year than last. Coverage also highlights the direct diplomatic engagement with Trump's envoys in Kyiv and the multilateral round with European partners, presenting it as a renewed diplomatic track running in parallel with the security urgency on the ground.

Where reporting differs

Casualty counts from the September 8 attack on Kyiv diverge across sources: some report 2 killed and 10 injured, others 2 killed and 12 injured, with additional divergence over which districts were hit and the breakdown of intercepted targets.

Background

Trump's special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Vladimir Putin in Moscow on September 5 and then Zelensky in Kyiv on September 6; the Kyiv talks also included a multilateral round with national-security advisors from the UK, Germany and France. During the envoys' visit, Ukraine and Russia agreed a mutual three-day moratorium on strikes on each other's capitals. Zelensky says Ukraine is short of ballistic-missile interceptors, is developing its own "Freyja"/FREYJA anti-ballistic program and hopes for US and European backing. The September 8 overnight attack on Kyiv involved roughly 180 aerial targets, with Ukrainian forces reporting about 90% intercepted. The Financial Times reported that Trump refused a 300-Patriot-missile request from Zelensky to preserve US stockpiles; Zelensky says partners cited Middle East fighting as the official reason Ukraine received three times fewer BMD missiles this year than last. Possible trilateral-meeting venues mentioned include the UAE, Switzerland or Turkey, with possible agenda items including energy and grain exports and, as the priority, the humanitarian track — especially prisoner exchanges.