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Donald Trump said on Thursday that he would again meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for talks seeking to end the war in Ukraine.
The US president announced the upcoming meeting in Budapest in a post on social media after a lengthy phone call with his Russian counterpart, without specifying when it would take place.
The call came ahead of Friday’s planned meeting at the White House between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as Kyiv seeks additional US military support against Russian attacks.
Senior US and Russian officials would meet next week to lay the groundwork for a further meeting between Trump and Putin, the US president said. The US delegation will be led by Trump’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also serves as his national security adviser.
“I believe great progress was made with today’s telephone conversation,” Trump said on Truth Social.
“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 that he and Putin spent “a great deal of time talking about Trade between Russia and the United States when the War with Ukraine is over”.
Thursday’s call marked the first time Trump and Putin have spoken directly since they met for talks in Anchorage, Alaska, in August. Since that meeting, the US president has grown increasingly frustrated with Putin’s refusal to end the war.
That intransigence has prompted the US president to look at new ways to push the Russian leader to the negotiating table, including by floating the sale of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine — a long-range weapon that could reach Moscow.
“I’m very disappointed because Vladimir and I had a very good relationship, probably still do,” Trump said on Tuesday. “I don’t know why he continues with this war. This war has been so bad for him.”
Experts say the Tomahawk missiles are unlikely to be a game-changer on the battlefield, because the US cannot spare many and the required land-based launchers are in short supply.
But if Trump were to allow Nato allies to buy them for Kyiv, it would send a strong signal to Moscow about Trump’s deepening support for Ukraine.
“The threat of Tomahawks pushed Putin to hurry up,” said a senior Ukrainian official, reacting to news of Trump’s plans to meet again with the Russian president.
Since he returned to office, Trump has said he will not provide any new US military aid for Ukraine, seeking to shift the burden of the country’s defence on to Europe.
Several European countries have pledged to fund the purchase of weapons from US stockpiles to support Ukraine under the so-called PURL initiative. New announcements of arms deliveries under the initiative are expected this week.
Trump and Zelenskyy spoke twice over the course of last weekend, discussing the Tomahawks as well as strategies to end the war.
The Ukrainian president’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak and Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko were in Washington this week for meetings with their US counterparts. “This week is Ukraine week,” said Ukraine’s ambassador to Washington, Olga Stefanishyna.
Friday’s meeting will be Zelenskyy’s third visit to the White House since Trump returned to office — and second since the February clash in the Oval Office that marked a low point in US-Ukrainian relations.
But Trump has grown more sympathetic to Kyiv’s plight in recent months, criticising Putin for his continued air strikes on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.
The two leaders are expected to discuss further sanctions on Moscow, long-range strikes into Russia and ways to bolster Ukraine’s air defence and energy sector, Stefanishyna said.
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