The White House said Trump “don’t encourage murder” by asking Ukraine for the strike.

The White House said President Donald Trump was “just asking a question” when he asked the Ukrainian president if he could attack Moscow.

The Financial Times quoted anonymous sources as saying that if the United States provides long-range weapons, Trump privately encouraged Ukraine to strike against Russia on July 4.

But Trump “just ask a question, not encourage further killing. He worked tirelessly to stop the killing and end the war,” the White House told the BBC in a statement.

On Monday, Trump announced that he would send weapons to Ukraine and warned that there would be more tariffs on Russia if the country did not reach a ceasefire agreement with Ukraine within 50 days.

The president said that if no peace agreement with Ukraine was reached in that timeline, the United States would impose 100% secondary tariffs on Russia’s remaining trading partners.

Of the weapons involved in the latest deal, Trump said “everything” including the defensive Patriot missiles, although the exact details are not yet clear.

In response to reporters’ questions on Tuesday, Trump said Ukrainian President Vlodomyr Zelensky should not target Moscow with strikes and said he was unwilling to give the state long-range missiles.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the United States, Europe and Ukraine are still working to carefully study the details of the weapons agreed in the deal.

According to the United Nations, Russia has escalated its drone and missile attacks in Ukraine in recent weeks, killing more than 230 civilians in June, the largest number of people killed in a month in three years of the war.

According to the Financial Times, Trump’s question about Zelensky is about whether the country can attack Moscow.

“Volodymyr, can you hit Moscow? … Can you hit St. Petersburg too?” media reports Trump asked on a separate phone call with Zelensky.

Ukraine this year Ukraine attacked several targets within Russia, with the United States and Britain providing missiles.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has promised to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

But the promise is much more complicated than expected, with Trump growing frustrated with Russian leaders and lacking progress in ending the conflict.

On Monday, Trump told the BBC that he was “disappointed” with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He added: “But I wasn’t with him.”

Trump also said he was “working” to get Putin to terminate the killing in Ukraine.

“We’re going to have a good conversation. I’ll say, ‘Good, I think we’re going to be close to finishing, and then he’s going to knock down a building in Kiev.”

Two rounds of ceasefire negotiations between Russia and Ukraine took place earlier this year, but no other meetings were scheduled.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that Trump’s commitment to raise tariffs and sending weapons to Ukraine “is not as a signal of peace, but as a signal of continuing war.”