WASHINGTON — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy struck an upbeat note after discussions with Donald Trump about air defenses and renewing diplomacy, despite few signs Kyiv’s any closer to securing new arms to bolster its military capabilities against Russia.

Tuesday’s meeting was positive, even as substantive air defense ordinance and other potential game-changers are unlikely to materialize this year, according to people familiar with the discussion. At the same time, the talks yielded no concrete indications that the U.S. president was preparing to deepen pressure on Russia any time soon to push President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.

Still, the marked change in tone from Trump is welcome after earlier tensions between the two leaders and may provide leeway for the U.S. administration and Congress to bolster public support for Kyiv, the people said.

The visits to the White House and, later, to Capitol Hill came as Zelenskyy seeks crucial U.S. weapons to strengthen Ukraine’s ability to defend against Russian missile and drone strikes that have battered its cities.

The Ukrainian leader said in a social media post that he and Trump had a “good meeting” and discussed licenses for Patriot interceptor production and several other ideas. He reiterated Ukraine’s priorities during a meeting hours later with senators.

“Of course, I shared what we need, our needs. I shared it with the president today. I was thankful to him for this meeting, and now I shared with senators,” Zelenskyy told reporters. “So we will try to manage it. It’s a big, big challenge.”

His chief of staff said the two sides had “agreed to intensify the negotiation process at all levels.” Zelenskyy scored a win earlier this month when he met with Trump at the NATO summit in Turkey, with the U.S. president agreeing to let Ukraine manufacture Patriot missile interceptors.

That pledge and other promises made in Ankara remain on the table as discussions continue, the people said.

Building its own Patriots, though, is likely to take considerable time and Zelenskyy is eager to obtain more immediate help to repel Russian assaults with the war now in its fifth year.

“There are reasons to be somewhat skeptical,” said Max Bergmann, director of the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic International Studies. Though “it may not be applicable in the battlefield in 2026 or 2027,” it’s still a good partnership to have for Ukraine, he added.

Co-production of the in-demand interceptors would “probably take years,” George Beebe, a former CIA analyst who is director of grand strategy at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, told reporters at a briefing Tuesday.

On Capitol Hill, Zelenskyy, who attended the funeral of Senator Lindsey Graham at the National Cathedral on Tuesday, expressed confidence that “Ukraine really can produce everything.”

The Ukrainian president said he also met on Tuesday with representatives from Lockheed Martin Corp., which produces missiles for the Patriot defenses. In a post on X, he said teams were “already working on specific solutions to move to co-production as quickly as possible.” Last week, Zelenskyy met with a team from Raytheon, which is a contractor for the overall Patriot system.

Kyiv continues to receive deliveries of weapons from allies, mostly from existing stocks. However, those will need to keep flowing as winter approaches, while greater volumes and more robust capabilities would be needed to alter the balance on the battlefield.

Following Trump and Zelenskyy’s meeting, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called it — and a separate White House session between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — “positive and productive.”

Zelenskyy and Trump had a rocky relationship earlier in the U.S. president’s second term, but that dynamic has warmed. At the NATO summit, Trump praised his Ukrainian counterpart as doing an “amazing job,” a recognition of Kyiv’s battlefield gains.

Ukraine has slowed Russian advances on the battlefield while the country’s drone prowess has enabled frequent long-range strikes targeting oil and military installations deep in Russian territory. That is escalating the war’s strain on Russia’s economy, driving up fuel and transportation costs.

Still, Moscow has intensified missile and drone attacks while insisting Ukraine concede to sweeping concessions to end the war, including giving up land Russia hasn’t been able to capture. Diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have stalled, and there are no signs that Putin is serious about a diplomatic solution.

European officials assess that the Russian president likely sees the coming winter as an opportunity to increase pressure on Kyiv.

U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators have discussed ways to reinvigorate talks, and Trump’s top envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, may visit Kyiv in the near future, though similar expectations have been previously disappointed, some of the people said. The Financial Times first reported that Witkoff and Kushner are in talks to visit Ukraine.

Witkoff has traveled to Moscow multiple times and last year advised the Kremlin on how to pitch a peace plan to Trump.

—With assistance from Erik Wasson and Jimmy Jenkins.

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