US President Donald Trump said that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed to meet in Hungary for a second summit to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.

After a more than two-hour-long phone call with Putin on Thursday, Trump said in a post on his Truth Social network that “great progress” had been made in negotiations.

“I just concluded my telephone conversation with President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, and it was a very productive one,” he wrote.

“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 other various 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,” Trump wrote.

He added that he would brief President Volodymyr Zelensky on the telephone call at their Oval Office meeting scheduled for Friday.

In subsequent remarks at the Oval Office, Trump said the Budapest meeting would happen “within the next two weeks or so, pretty quick.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán appeared to confirm the face-to-face talks, writing on X: “The planned meeting between the American and Russian presidents is great news for the peace-loving people of the world. We are ready!”

Orbán is eager to showcase his close relationship with the US president as Hungarian elections are approaching in spring, self-promoting his presence in Egypt with Trump for the announcement of a ceasefire in Gaza.

The Hungarian leader also retains closer relations with Putin than just about any other EU leader, and is happy to host him in Budapest as no other European capital would extend such a welcome to a leader accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court.

Door not closed on Putin-Zelensky talks

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt described the call in a subsequent press briefing in Washington as “very good” and “productive.”

“President Putin congratulated President Trump for solving the conflict in Israel and Gaza and bringing peace back to the Middle East,” she said. “He also thanked the First Lady for her efforts to bring back and save children in this brutal conflict.”

“The president feels great progress was made on this call,” Leavitt added, saying that high level staff from the US and Russia could convene as early as next week.

Asked if there was a possibility of a meeting between Putin and Zelensky, she said: “I think [Trump] thinks it’s possible.”

“But right now... plans are now being made for the Russian side and our folks, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to meet, and then for President Putin and President Trump, perhaps, to meet again.”

“But I don’t think the President has closed the door on [a meeting between Kyiv and Moscow] at all,” Leavitt finished.

In response to a further question about whether conditions have changed sufficiently that a second summit will bring the US closer to brokering a peace deal, Leavitt said: “The President is always willing to take a chance at democracy.”

“And this war – he has always said is going to have to end at the negotiating table. And so he’s, you know, he never gives up, and he’s willing to pursue it.”

Moscow: Tomahawks “would cause significant damage” to US-Russia relations

Speaking to reporters in Moscow, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said that Putin had criticized Trump during their call for previous suggestions that the US could supply Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine.

“Vladimir Putin reiterated his position that Tomahawks would not change the situation on the battlefield, but would cause significant damage to relations between our two countries, not to mention the prospects for a peaceful settlement,” he said, according to Russian state media.

He added that Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov would hold a phone call in the coming days before the upcoming summit between the two heads of state.

Ushakov also told journalists that the Kremlin had initiated the call with Trump, but that the US President had suggested Budapest as a location for talks.

However, the Kremlin seemed cautious about confirming the meeting, saying only that it “could” be held in Hungary.

“Voice of reason and a peacemaker”

Putin’s special envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, also responded to the announcement on X, writing: “Important for the world positive and productive phone call between President Putin and President Trump with the clear next steps [sic],” alongside a screenshot of Trump’s Truth Social post.

“UK and EU warmongers try very very hard to derail peace prospects. But dialogue and peace and the US-Russia cooperation will prevail,” he added, praising Hungary minutes later as “the voice of reason in Europe and a peacemaker.”

In 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin in relation to the forced deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia, meaning the Kremlin chief could be subject to arrest in 125 countries.

However in the same year, Orbán’s Chief of Staff Gergely Gulyas said that Budapest would not arrest Putin if he entered the country even though Hungary was a signatory to the Rome Statute, the treaty that created the ICC.

In April 2025, Hungary’s parliament voted in favor of withdrawing from the ICC, before reports emerged from US administration sources that Trump was mulling hosting talks in the country in August.

Earlier this year, Orban invited Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu on a state visit to Hungary in defiance of an arrest warrant issued by the court.

Hungary has repeatedly raised objections to supplying Kyiv with weapons, threatened to “pull the handbrake” on its financial aid and vetoed Ukraine’s EU accession talks.