U.S. President Donald Trump hosts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday, with wars in Iran and Ukraine at critical stages and his ties with both leaders markedly different, according to Reuters.
Relations with Zelensky have warmed as Ukraine has blunted Russian advances, while Netanyahu arrives amid growing White House frustration over the lack of progress toward a broader settlement in the Iran conflict and criticism from some of Trump's supporters who oppose deeper U.S. involvement in the Middle East.
The two men are in Washington to attend a memorial service for Senator Lindsey Graham, a hawkish Republican who was one of Trump's closest allies and who frequently tried to coax Trump into providing more support for Ukraine's war.
Zelensky said that anti-ballistic defense and strategic cooperation with the U.S. were the "number-one priority" for meetings with Trump and his team, as he arrived in Washington.
"Peace needs to be brought closer," he said in a post on X.
Both the Ukraine war and widening Middle East conflict are at critical junctures. After the collapse of a ceasefire in the Iran war, Trump says he has paused U.S. airstrikes to give diplomacy another chance. Zelensky, meanwhile, has been buoyed by Ukraine's recent successes.
Still, there is no end in sight for either conflict.
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