'Absolutely. If you can...': Zelenskiy's response to Trump on whether Ukraine can hit Moscow

The US president quizzed him on whether Ukraine could hit Moscow and St. Petersburg, according to Financial Times

US President Donald Trump asked Volodymyr Zelenskiy whether Ukraine could strike Moscow if provided with US long-range weapons, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing people briefed about a call the two leaders held on July 4.

Details of the alleged conversation emerged a day after Trump pledged fresh weapons supplies to Kyiv that would be paid for by European allies. He also threatened to impose stiff economic penalties on Russia if it doesn’t end the war on Ukraine within 50 days.

Zelenskiy said he and Trump agreed during their call to cooperate on air defenses after Russia had unleashed one of the biggest air attacks of the war on the Ukrainian capital. The US president quizzed him on whether Ukraine could hit Moscow and St. Petersburg, according to Financial Times. “Absolutely. We can if you give us the weapons,” the newspaper reported Zelenskiy as saying.

The conversation followed Trump’s call with Russian President Vladimir Putin a day earlier, after which the US leader said he was “very disappointed” by the discussion.

The US shared with Zelenskiy a list of potential weapons that it could make available to Ukraine during a meeting in Rome last week, according to the Financial Times. The list included long-range strike systems, it said.

Trump’s move to raise pressure on Putin came after months of unsuccessful diplomacy aimed at persuading Russia to halt its war on Ukraine and negotiate a peace deal. Russia has intensified its drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities in recent weeks.

Trump told the BBC in an interview Monday that he was “disappointed” in Putin, but not “done with him.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday called Trump’s latest statements “serious” and said Russia needed time to analyze them, according to the Interfax news service. Putin will comment personally on Trump’s words about him if necessary, Peskov said.