President Trump said on Thursday that he spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin and that he will soon meet in person again with the Russian leader in Budapest, Hungary, to discuss the possibility of ending the war in Ukraine.
Trump said in a post on Truth Social that high-level US and Russian officials will hold talks next week before he has a summit with Putin.
“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,” Trump wrote.
“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,” the president added.
Trump said that he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will discuss the planned meeting when Zelensky visits the White House on Friday. “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,” he said.
Zelensky is expected to ask Trump to provide Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles, which have a range of over 1,000 miles and are nuclear-capable, a step that would mark a major escalation of the proxy war and bring a significant risk of the conflict turning into a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO.
Trump said on Wednesday that he and Zelensky will also discuss the possibility of Ukraine going on the “offensive,” something he said he needs to make a “determination” on. A delegation of Ukrainian officials has been in Washington this week, pushing for more weapons and less diplomacy with Russia.
