President Zelensky got rejected on Tomahawks, but is now seeking to finalizing a deal to purchase 25 Patriot air defense systems, which the Ukrainian leader has described as a major step forward in strengthening the country's defenses against Russia's ongoing aerial assaults.

Zelensky has told reporters in fresh remarks that the agreement envisions the delivery of multiple systems each year over a period of several years. Additionally, key European partners are expected to grant Ukraine priority access to Patriot systems when they come off the production line.

What's more is that Zelensky wants to use Russian funds to buy the air defense missiles. "Speaking in Kyiv after talks with Trump and American weapons-makers, Zelenskyy said Ukraine needed 25 US Patriot anti-missile batteries and that Russia's frozen assets in the west should be used to buy them," The Guardian reports.

Ukraine's energy sites and electrical grid are getting pummeled by nightly Russian missile and drone assaults, which have resulted in forced rolling blackouts to keep the lights on as much as possible across the country, and all ahead of winter when resources tend to be at their most strained.

At the moment, President Trump is being widely accused in mainstream media of essentially selling out the Ukrainians and siding with Putin related to potential future terms of a peace settlement:

Behind the scenes, Trump had pushed Zelenskyy to give up swaths of territory to Russia, two people briefed on the discussion told Reuters. “Let it be cut the way it is,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday. “It’s cut up right now,” he said, adding that you can “leave it the way it is right now”.

“They can negotiate something later on down the line,” he said. But for now, both sides of the conflict should “stop at the battle line – go home, stop fighting, stop killing people”.

This would indeed give Russia effective control of some 20% of Ukraine, and the idea is that the battlelines would be 'frozen' as a more comprehensive deal is hammered out.

It could be that Trump is finally getting realistic about the conflict - the Russians are not going to pack up and leave the battle lines, and territorial concessions are what will end the war, whether Kiev likes it or not.

Interestingly, Zelensky has also newly indicated he would be open to traveling to Budapest, where Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump are expected to meet, in the scenario of trilateral or "shuttle diplomacy"; however, neither side has offered this to him.

He and the Europeans fear getting 'cut out' or sidelined from Moscow-Washington agreements. So far, the biggest hawks who seek to prevent Zelensky from striking real compromise are in the European capitals.