Trump and Putin
Picnews
US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set to meet in Budapest, Hungary, to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. This development comes after a “productive” phone call between the two leaders, where they discussed potential peace negotiations. Trump announced that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet with high-level Russian advisors next week to further discuss resolving the war.
The planned summit in Hungary represents a diplomatic effort to bring an end to the conflict. Trump expressed optimism about the progress made during their call, stating that he believes the success in the Middle East peace process could help in attaining similar results in the Russia-Ukraine war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is scheduled to meet with Trump at the White House, where he is expected to press for more military support, including long-range Tomahawk missiles capable of striking deep into Russian territory.
Trump has hinted that he might use the missiles as leverage in negotiations with Moscow. “If this war is not going to get settled, I’m going to send them Tomahawks,” he told reporters earlier this week. The Kremlin has warned that supplying such missiles to Ukraine would damage Russia-US relations. Putin has also accused “certain Western elites” of artificially disrupting the global energy system.
The upcoming meeting between Trump and Putin will be their second face-to-face encounter, following their summit in Alaska in August. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a close ally of both leaders, has offered to host the meeting in Budapest, describing it as “great news for the peace-loving people of the world”. Orbán has also stated that preparations for the summit have begun.
The planned meeting comes amid a sharp escalation in fighting, with Ukraine seeking more advanced US weapons, including Tomahawk long-range cruise missiles capable of striking deep inside Russian territory. Zelenskyy believes that such strikes would enable Ukrainian forces to push Putin into negotiations to end his invasion of Ukraine, now in its fourth year.
