Donald Trump has revealed he and Vladimir Putin will meet in Hungary “to see if we can bring this ‘inglorious’ war, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end. The US president took to his social media platform Truth Social to announce the summit following a phone call with his Russian counterpart.
Mr Trump hailed their conversation as “very productive”, with Putin congratulating him “on the Great Accomplishment of Peace in the Middle East”. He wrote: “I have just concluded my telephone conversation with President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, and it was a very productive one. President Putin congratulated me and the United States on the Great Accomplishment of Peace in the Middle East, something that, he said, has been dreamed of for centuries.”
The Republican then went on to confirm a meeting with Putin and their advisors next week.
He added: “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. 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.”
Mr Trump is now gearing up for a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky tomorrow amid discussions that Kyiv could receive Tomahawk cruise missiles, which would allow it to strike deeper into Russia.
He concluded: “President Zelenskyy 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.”
Mr Trump and Mr Zelensky held a phone call earlier this week to discuss the missiles.
The Ukrainian president described it as “very productive”, praising his American counterpart for being “well-informed about everything that is happening”.
He added: “We see and hear that Russia fears the Americans might provide us with Tomahawks, which signals that this kind of pressure could be effective in achieving peace.”
Mr Trump said he has “sort of made a decision” on whether to send Ukraine the weapons, but wants “to find out what they’re doing with them”.