Volodymyr Zelenskyy walked into the White House on Tuesday with two wars on his mind, and both of them now involve the United States.
The Ukrainian president’s meeting with Donald Trump comes at a moment when the conflict in Ukraine and the US-Israeli war on Iran are physically converging. Last week, Ukraine struck an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea, directly linking the two battlefields for the first time. Iran responded with fury, and Tehran’s foreign minister said the attack could not go unanswered.
The convergence is reshaping the politics of both wars. The US Senate is set to vote Tuesday on new Russian sanctions, a measure that would have been unremarkable a year ago but now carries the weight of a deeper question: can Washington sustain two major conflicts simultaneously?
Trump is also hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the same day, a double-header that underscores how America’s wars have become entangled. Netanyahu and Zelenskyy are both fighting Iranian-backed forces, but their interests diverge sharply on how the US should allocate its military resources.
The White House meetings come as Trump’s military advisers have reportedly warned him that the US is running low on precision munitions and missile interceptors. General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has privately cautioned the president about the negative impact on weapons stockpiles, according to officials cited by Reuters.
Zelenskyy will also visit the US Capitol to address all 100 senators, pressing for continued aid. But the Pentagon has told Congress it will not finish spending $400 million in authorized Ukraine funding until fiscal year 2029, a timeline that suggests Ukraine aid is no longer the priority it was under the Biden administration.
The irony is hard to miss. Trump entered office promising to end wars, not start them. But the US is now fighting in Iran, supporting Israel’s campaign in Lebanon, supplying Ukraine against Russia, and facing the prospect of a wider Middle Eastern conflict if the pause in strikes with Iran collapses.
For Zelenskyy, the calculus has shifted. Ukraine needs US weapons to fight Russia. But the US arsenal is being drained in a different war, one Trump chose to escalate, not end.