Trump and Putin to meet to discuss ‘end to the war’ in Ukraine

3 hours ago 2

London: A phone call between US President Donald Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin has cleared the way for a high-stakes meeting between the two men in Hungary to try to end the war in Ukraine in the wake of the ceasefire in Gaza.

Trump said the peace deal in the Middle East would help the negotiations over Ukraine and revealed he would send Secretary of State Marco Rubio to a meeting with Russian officials next week to prepare for the leadership summit with Putin.

President Donald Trump and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin met in Alaska in August.

The declaration came ahead of a visit to the White House by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and a pivotal US decision on whether to sell Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine so it can strike targets deep inside Russian territory.

Trump said he had a “productive” phone conversation with Putin, who congratulated him on the Middle East peace deal and said it had been “dreamed of for centuries” – a comment that reprises the US president’s high hopes for a lasting peace.

“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,” the US president wrote on Truth Social.

“At the conclusion of the call, we agreed that there will be a meeting of our High Level Advisors, next week. The United States’ initial meetings will be led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, together with various other people, to be designated. A 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 went to the US presidential election last November with a vow that he could end the war in Ukraine, but he has expressed increasing frustration with Putin over the missile strikes.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky is due to meet Trump at the White House.

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.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who drew high praise from Trump on Monday at the Gaza peace summit in Egypt, backed the summit on Ukraine.

“The planned meeting between the American and Russian presidents is great news for the peace-loving people of the world. We are ready!” he said.

Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, at a summit in Denmark this month.

Orban regularly criticises Zelensky on social media and has resisted European Union calls to stop buying oil from Russia, while he has also visited Putin in Moscow in recent years.

With Russian forces pounding Ukraine, Zelensky and his ministers are urging the US and the EU to toughen sanctions against Russia and supply more weapons to Ukraine.

Zelensky said Russia was using “double terror” by attacking with drones carrying cluster munitions as well as launching strikes at emergency services workers when they were restoring damaged facilities.

“This autumn, the Russians use every single day to strike at our energy infrastructure,” he wrote on X ahead of his meeting at the White House.

“Putin has turned a deaf ear to everything the world says, so the only language that can still get through to him is the language of pressure – pressure through sanctions and pressure through long-range capabilities.

“Strong decisions are possible, decisions that can help. And this depends on the United States, on Europe, on all partners whose strength directly determines whether the war will be ended.“

In the latest warnings to Russia, Trump said on Wednesday that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had pledged to stop buying oil from Russia, and that the administration would push China to do the same.

India has not confirmed any such commitment, though Reuters reported some Indian refiners are preparing to cut Russian oil imports, with expectations of a gradual reduction, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

US Secretary for War Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday that Washington would “impose costs on Russia for its continued aggression” unless the war ends.

With Reuters

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