US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest, Hungary, to discuss the war in Ukraine. He did not specify when that meeting may take place.
Trump announced the plans on Truth Social following a lengthy phone call with Putin, which he said “was a very productive one.”
“President Putin and I will then meet in an agreed upon location, Budapest, Hungary, to see if we can bring this ‘inglorious’ War, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end.
President Zelensky and I will be meeting tomorrow, in the Oval Office, where we will discuss my conversation with President Putin, and much more. I believe great progress was made with today’s telephone conversation,” the president said.
Trump also noted that Secretary of State Marco Rubio will lead a delegation of high-level advisors to meet with Russian officials next week, with a location “to be determined.”
“At the conclusion of the call, we agreed that there will be a meeting of our High Level Advisors, next week. The United States’ initial meetings will be led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, together with various other people, to be designated. A meeting location is to be determined,” the president wrote.
The announcement comes more than two months after Trump held his last in-person summit with Putin in Alaska.
Budapest wanted to host that meeting as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has maintained a close relationship with Putin and Trump.
The president has recently opened the possibility of giving Ukraine Tomahawk cruise missiles if Russia does not substantially change its negotiating stance. The topic of Tomahawks did not appear in the president’s readout of his phone call with Russia’s leader.
Zelensky had told journalists in Kyiv that the main topics of his conversation with the president on Friday at the White House will include “air defense and our possibilities with long-range (missiles to put) pressure on Russia.”
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