Trump to Meet Putin in Budapest to Discuss War in Ukraine

By Skylar Woodhouse and Natalia Drozdiak

3:47:24 PM

US President Donald Trump said he would hold a second meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a yet-to-be determined date aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.

Trump and Putin agreed to meet in Budapest during a two-hour phone call on Thursday. The two leaders met in Alaska in August, but failed to reach a breakthrough.

“I believe great progress was made with today’s telephone conversation,” Trump posted on social media, saying that he and Putin would “see if we can bring this ‘inglorious’ War, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end.”

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov confirmed that Putin and Trump discussed holding a summit meeting in Budapest. He told reporters in an audio message that the discussion was substantive and frank, and that Trump proposed holding the meeting in Budapest.

“We are ready!” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban posted on X in response, later saying he spoke to Trump by phone to prepare for the gathering.

The US and Russia will hold high-level staff talks next week before the leaders summit, with Washington’s delegation led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. A location has not yet been decided, Trump said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Rubio plan to hold a call in the coming days, Ushakov said. The leaders discussed what US-Russia trade would be possible if the war ends, according to Trump.

The developments signal that Trump is willing to give diplomacy another chance before authorizing more aggressive steps against Moscow, even though his efforts thus far haven’t succeeded.

The conversation took place a day before Trump’s White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who has pressed the US president to sell his country long-range Tomahawk missiles that can strike deeper into Russian territory.

Zelenskiy has said that such attacks would help force Putin into negotiations to end his invasion of Ukraine, now in its fourth year. Trump, too, had recently indicated eagerness to ramp up pressure on the Russian leader, teasing the prospect of allowing Ukraine access to Tomahawks.

Trump said he would share details of his conversation with Putin with Zelenskiy.

The issue of possible US deliveries of Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine was also discussed, Ushakov said. Trump told Putin he would take account of the Russian leader’s views during his meeting with Zelenskiy.

A massive overnight aerial strike on Ukraine ahead of the Trump-Putin call “exposes Moscow’s real attitude toward peace,” Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, Olga Stefanishyna, said in a statement, calling it “a direct blow to ongoing peace efforts led by President Trump.”

Trump is turning his attention to Putin’s military campaign on the heels of securing a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Ending wars in Gaza and Ukraine was a core 2024 campaign promise of Trump’s, and he has vented frustration with Putin over his refusal to halt the fighting or meet Zelenskiy face-to-face for peace talks.

Emboldened by his dealmaking in the Middle East, Trump has expressed renewed confidence he can achieve a similar result in Ukraine. The president’s critics have accused him of repeatedly falling prey to insincere entreaties by Putin, who has shown little interest in bringing his military campaign to a close.

Earlier: Zelenskiy Readies List of Promises to Win Over Trump on Weapons

“I actually believe that the Success in the Middle East will help in our negotiation in attaining an end to the War with Russia/Ukraine,” Trump posted Thursday.

Tomahawks are among the most advanced weapons in the American arsenal, and would allow Kyiv’s forces to expand the range of Russian targets and increase the pain felt by Moscow. “I might say, ‘Look, if the war’s not going to get settled, I may send them Tomahawks,’” Trump recently said.

Trump famously boasted during last year’s campaign he could end Russia’s invasion on his first day back in the White House. Despite multiple conversations with Putin — including the Alaska summit — that goal has proved elusive.

Putin has shown no signs he is willing to compromise, instead continuing to launch attacks on Ukraine. His forces have targeted Ukrainian energy infrastructure in recent weeks to devastating effect with cold winter weather approaching, a bid to demoralize the civilian population. More than half of Ukraine’s domestic gas production was wiped out after a string attacks in October.

In the meeting with Trump on Friday, their fourth face-to-face conversation this year, Zelenskiy is expected to renew pleas for air defense, long-range weapons, and assistance in sourcing new energy supplies. He is also expected to offer a drone manufacturing partnership and use of the country’s oil pipeline distribution network, efforts to keep the US leader on Ukraine’s side.

At the same time, Zelenskiy is posied to reiterate appeals to Trump to ratchet up sanctions on Russia, a move the US leader has been loathe to take.

US Senate Majority Leader John Thune said after the leaders’ call that he is ready to hold a vote on legislation imposing sanctions on countries that trade with Russia “soon,” but declined to specify a timeline, only saying he would do so in the “next 30 days.”

Trump has focused on unilateral measures to prod Moscow, urging US allies to cut purchases of Russian oil that fund its war machine. The president said India agreed to take such a step, but the country’s foreign ministry said they were not aware of a discussion in which Trump said Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the pledge.

— With assistance from Anthony Halpin and Nick Wadhams

(Adds comments from Orban, Ukraine ambassador and Thune, starting in fifth paragraph)