Ahead of his upcoming meeting with President Trump on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he met with Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright and various American energy and defense companies on Thursday.
Zelensky shared a series of posts on the social platform X, where he talked about meeting with Wright and several executives and CEOs of various companies, including Bechtel, GE Vernova, Westinghouse Electric Company, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, among others.
“During my meeting with Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy Chris Wright, we discussed in detail energy capacities and potential projects for partnership in the energy sector,” Zelensky wrote in one post. “I spoke about Russia’s strikes on Ukraine’s energy system and the need to restore the affected facilities as quickly as possible.”
One focus of the meetings was prospects for joint initiatives in oil, gas, and nuclear energy. Ukraine has rich but largely untapped reserves of critical minerals used in everything from electric batteries to weapons and airplanes.
But Ukraine was also inquiring about how the companies could help its fight against Russia. While the Trump administration has opposed additional funding of Ukraine’s military, it has encouraged NATO countries to purchase weapons from U.S. manufacturers to supply Kyiv.
The meeting with Lockheed Martin was to discuss “our prospects for cooperation and ways to strengthen Ukraine’s protection against Russian aggression,” another post read. This included an outline for “Ukraine’s specific needs for air defense systems,” such as F-16 fighter jets and compatible missiles.
Zelensky met with Raytheon representatives focused on Ukraine’s “battlefield situation and Russia’s intensified attacks on our people and civilian infrastructure,” Zelensky wrote in a separate post.
“We discussed Raytheon’s production capacity, potential avenues for our cooperation to strengthen Ukraine’s air defense and long-range capabilities, and the prospects for Ukrainian-American joint production,” Zelensky continued. “Solutions to enhance the protection of lives in Ukraine exist, and we are working at all levels to ensure their realization.”
On Thursday, Russian drones and missiles struck Ukrainian energy facilities, then targeted emergency crews and engineers trying to repair the power grid, Zelensky said on Telegram.
Zelensky’s meetings come after Trump suggested he is not ready to give Zelensky Tomahawk long-range missiles.
“We need Tomahawks for the United States of America too,” Trump said. “We have a lot of them, but we need them. I mean we can’t deplete our country.”
Trump’s remarks came after a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which included discussion of potential trade deals once the war ends.
