Responding to a question about whether he would receive Zelensky at the White House on Friday, Trump told reporters: “I think so.”

On Monday, the Financial Times reported from sources that Trump intends to host Zelensky in Washington on October 17, while Zelensky later expressed hope to meet Trump in Washington on Friday to plead once again for long-range weapons.

US President Donald Trump also expressed his view that Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan could help resolve the Ukrainian conflict.

Trump told reporters: “Erdogan can do that, he is respected by Russia, I can’t say anything about Ukraine, but he is respected by (Russian leader Vladimir) Putin, and he (the Turkish president) is my friend.”

Earlier, the New York Post reported that the Ukrainian embassy in the United States confirmed Zelensky received an official invitation from the White House to visit Washington. However, it did not disclose the content, date of the meeting, or when the invitation was delivered.

It is worth noting that US President Donald Trump announced last Monday that he had made a near-final decision to sell “Tomahawk” missiles to NATO countries to supply Ukraine, noting that he wants to know Ukraine’s plans for using these missiles before approving their supply, according to Axios.

For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that Kyiv’s use of “Tomahawk” missiles would damage Russian-American relations.

Putin pointed out that using these missiles in Ukraine would be impossible without direct participation by American military personnel.