Trump says he will meet with Putin in Budapest to continue negotiations on Ukraine.
The US president described the call with his Russian counterpart as "productive."
WashingtonAfter a "long" call with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump has announced that a US and Russian delegation will meet next week to continue negotiations on the future of Ukraine. The US president also stated that, after this meeting, he and Putin will meet in Budapest, Hungary. "President Putin and I will meet afterward at an agreed-upon location, Budapest, Hungary, to see if we can end this 'infamous' war between Russia and Ukraine," the US president wrote on Truth Social. The dates are yet to be confirmed. The meeting in Hungary would mark Putin's first visit to the European Union since the war began.
The conversation took place one day before Volodymyr Zelensky's trip to Washington, where he will meet for the third time with the Republican to call for greater US support in the war at a time when relations with Moscow appear to have cooled. In fact, Trump has assured that tomorrow he will discuss with Zelensky "my conversation with President Putin and many other issues" and added: "I think great progress was made today with the telephone conversation."
During his visit, Zelensky seeks to obtain the long-range Tomahawk missiles manufactured by the United States, which would put Moscow within its reach amid the intensification of Russian attacks on Ukraine's energy systems. Trump, frustrated with the stalled talks on ending the war, recently said that he could supply such weapons to Kiev if Putin does not agree to sit at the negotiating table.
"Would you like Tomahawks flying towards them [Russia]? I don't think so. If the war doesn't stop... maybe we will, maybe we won't," Trump warned in one of his usual open threats. Be that as it may, this is the Republican's strongest warning yet about the possibility of arming Ukraine with missiles capable of being fired 2,500 kilometers away and hitting deep into Russia. The shift is notable considering how Trump suspended military and economic aid shipments to Ukraine, as well as intelligence cooperation, earlier this year. All with the intention of pressuring Kiev to give in in the negotiations.
In fact, Zelensky is confident that the US president will "use the same tools as in the Middle East" to pressure Moscow and that the prospect of Kiev having high-precision cruise missiles will push Putin to negotiate seriously.
