US President Donald Trump will meet with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, next week in Budapest, Hungary. The information was confirmed by the Republican himself on his social media platform, Truth Social, after the two spoke on the phone this Thursday afternoon.
"We have agreed that there will be a meeting next week. The initial U.S. meetings will be led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others to be designated. President Putin and I will then meet at the agreed-upon location of Budapest, Hungary, to see if we can bring this war to an end," Donald Trump wrote on social media.
In the same post, Donald Trump described his conversation with Putin as"very productive." He said the Russian president thanked him for First Lady Melania Trump's involvement in child protection. They also discussed how Trump secured a peace agreement in the Middle East.
This news comes a day before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to the White House, scheduled for tomorrow, Friday. According to Donald Trump on Truth Social, this meeting will discuss his conversation"with President Putin and much more."
These developments come as Ukraine has been pressuring the US to grant it long-range Tomahawk missiles.
On Monday, Donald Trump had already told reporters during his trip to Israel that he planned to discuss delivering Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine and that he was considering moving forward with this idea if Russia did not end the war soon."Do they want to have Tomahawks going in that direction? I don't think so. I think I have to talk to Russia about that," he said on Monday. He added:"We may not do it, but we can do it. (...) We want to see this war ended."
On October 2, Vladimir Putin had already described this weapon as powerful and warned that the delivery of these missiles to Ukraine constitutes a threat to his country.
Supplying more weapons to Ukraine would not end the conflict, but Volodymyr Zelensky believes it could force Russia to move closer to ceasefire talks.