War against Ukraine

US President Trump plans to meet with Kremlin leader Putin in the Hungarian capital, Budapest. He announced this after a phone call with the Russian president. The meeting is expected to address an end to the war in Ukraine.

US President Donald Trump intends to continue his efforts to end the war in Ukraine. He has announced another meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This meeting will take place in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, Trump announced on his online platform Truth Social after a phone call with Putin. The goal is to find out"whether we can end this ignominious war between Russia and Ukraine."

According to Trump, the meeting will be prepared at a gathering of senior advisors from both sides next week. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will lead the talks. The location has yet to be determined.

Trump has not yet announced a specific date for the conversation with Putin. He described the phone call with the Russian president as"very productive." The discussion also addressed trade relations between the US and Russia after the intended end to the war in Ukraine. He is convinced that the"success in the Middle East," namely the ceasefire agreement after two years of war in the Gaza Strip, will help in the negotiations on Ukraine.

Zelensky's involvement open

Trump's announcement did not mention that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would be involved in the meeting in any way. The US president wrote only that he would speak with the Ukrainian on Friday at the White House about his phone call with Putin.

Zelenskyy wants to use his visit to Washington to secure Trump's approval for the delivery of Tomahawk cruise missiles to Kyiv. These would enable Ukraine to strike distant targets inside Russia. Zelenskyy argues that such attacks could convince Putin to take Trump's demands for direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine to end the war more seriously. The deal could be financed by NATO partners.

The Kremlin strongly warned the US government against such a delivery. Russia's former president and Security Council deputy head Dmitry Medvedev even hinted at a possible nuclear retaliation.

Alaska summit produced no results

The last personal meeting between Trump and Putin was about two months ago. The US president received the Kremlin chief in August in the US state of Alaska. It was the first meeting between a sitting US president and Putin in more than four years.

After the Russian invasion in February 2022, there was largely radio silence under Trump's Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, as the US became the most important supporter of the Ukrainian defenders. The summit in Alaska failed to produce any tangible results toward a quick peace solution to the Ukraine war. Trump had also repeatedly raised the possibility of a three-way meeting between Putin, Zelensky, and Trump – but this has not yet materialized.