Trump agrees to meet with Putin in Budapest to discuss ending the war in Ukraine
US President Donald Trump described Thursday's conversation with Vladimir Putin as significant progress, calling it "very productive," and announced planned meetings – one in person in Budapest and at the advisory level before that.
“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. 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 said on his Truth Social network Thursday.
He also said that during a scheduled meeting on Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, the two sides will discuss this conversation with Putin "and much more."
At the same time, Trump said that during his conversation with Putin he devoted a lot of time to discussing “trade between Russia and the United States when the War with Ukraine is over.”
“I actually believe that the Success in the Middle East will help in our negotiation in attaining an end to the War with Russia and Ukraine,” he said.
The US President also reported that Putin thanked US First Lady Melania Trump “for her involvement with children -he was very appreciative, and said that this will continue.”
“I believe great progress was made with today’s telephone conversation,” Trump concluded.
Trump's press secretary, Karoline Laevitt, said during a press briefing in Washington regarding the US president's conversation with Putin that Trump believes there is still an opportunity to arrange a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelenskyy, Sky News reports.
According to the press secretary, the conversation lasted only two hours, and based on its results, Trump believes that progress has been made on the issue of the Russia-Ukraine war. “The president will try to move the ball forward for peace,” Leavitt stated.
