US president says he and Russian leader agreed to convene next week in an undetermined location in Budapest
Donald Trump has said that his call with Vladimir Putin – which lasted more than two hours – was “good and productive” and that they agreed to convene a meeting of high-level staff, including secretary of state Marco Rubio, next week in an undetermined location.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he and Putin would then also meet again in Budapest “to see if we can bring this ‘inglorious’ War, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end”. Trump said he would be discussing the call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House tomorrow, but he believed “great progress was made” today.
Trump also said he believed “the Success in the Middle East will help in our negotiation in attaining an end to the War with Russia/Ukraine”. He said Putin thanked Melania Trump “for her involvement with children … and said that this will continue” and that the two leaders had also discussed trade between Russia and the US for when the war is over.
A reminder that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is heading to the White House tomorrow to push for more US military support, including potential long-range offensive missiles. He will no doubt be nervous by Trump’s positive tone following his call with Putin.
