Trump says to meet Putin in Hungary

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest, Hungary, for talks aimed at ending the Russia-Ukraine conflict, following a phone conversation between the two leaders.

"I have just concluded my telephone conversation with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, and it was a very productive one," said Trump on Truth Social.

"We also spent a great deal of time talking about trade between Russia and the United States when the war with Ukraine is over," he said.

"I believe great progress was made with today's telephone conversation," he added.

Trump said the two countries agreed to hold a high-level advisers' meeting next week, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio leading the US delegation, adding that the 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.

The phone call came one day ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to the White House.

Trump did not give a date for the meeting in Budapest, which would be his second with Putin since returning to office. The pair met in Alaska in August without a breakthrough in ending the conflict in Ukraine.

The Kremlin said it would start "immediately" preparing the summit following the "extremely frank and trustful" call.

Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will speak in the coming days to prepare a new summit between Trump and Putin, a Kremlin aide said on Thursday.

The official, Yuri Ushakov, said the timing of the summit would depend on how the preparatory work progressed.

The White House had seemed in recent days to be leaning toward granting Zelensky fresh support and was increasingly frustrated with Putin.

During the call, Putin told Trump that supplying long-range missiles to Ukraine would harm the peace process and damage US-Russia ties, Ushakov told reporters.

"What do you think he's going to say, 'Please sell Tomahawks?'" Trump later joked with reporters. "No, he doesn't want Tomahawks given to Ukraine," Trump added, calling them a "vicious weapon".

Zelensky, already in Washington, said Putin's decision to seek talks showed he was on the defensive. "We can already see that Moscow is rushing to resume dialogue as soon as it hears about Tomahawks," he said on X.

The Hungarian location selected for the Trump-Putin summit has drawn attention.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Thursday that Hungary is ready to host such talks.

He described the planned meeting as "great news for the peace-loving people of the world", adding that Hungary is ready to facilitate the talks.

"Budapest is essentially the only place in Europe today where such a meeting could be held," Orban said. "For three years, we have been the only country that has consistently, openly, loudly, and actively advocated for peace."

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Facebook that he had spoken to US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and Lavrov late on Thursday.

Kyiv and Moscow have been escalating their fighting with massive attacks on energy infrastructure.

Ukraine wants missiles that would put Moscow and other major Russian cities within its range of fire. In its latest barrage, Russia launched more than 300 drones and 37 missiles to target infrastructure across Ukraine in overnight attacks on Thursday, Zelensky said. Kyiv has ramped up its own attacks on Russian targets, including an oil refinery in the Saratov region on Thursday.