Trump says he and Putin will hold second summit on Ukraine in Budapest
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photos: Getty Images
President Trump announced following a call with Vladimir Putin on Thursday that he and the Russian leader had agreed to meet in Hungary in the coming weeks to discuss how to end the war in Ukraine.
Split screen: The two-hour call took place a day before Trump will host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House. Trump and Zelensky will discuss the possibility of Ukraine receiving Tomahawk long-range missiles.
Flashback: Trump and Putin made no tangible progress toward peace during a previous summit in Alaska in August. While Trump tried to arrange a follow-up summit between Putin and Zelensky, Putin has declined to hold one.
The latest: Putin said at a press conference later on Thursday that the meeting will happen in the next two weeks.
- Trump said he'd asked in a "lighthearted" way whether Putin would mind if he sent a "a couple thousand" Tomahawks, and suggested Putin asked him not to. He also said "we need Tomahawks for the U.S. and we can't deplete, so I don't know what we can do."
- Trump also spoke with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán about the planned summit.
- "Preparations for the USA-Russia peace summit are underway. Hungary is the island of PEACE!" Orbán wrote on his X account.
Driving the news: Trump said on Truth Social that he believes "great progress was made" in his call with Putin.
- He said there their top advisers would meet next week to discuss the situation in Ukraine, with the U.S. represented by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
- "President Putin and I will then meet in an agreed upon location, Budapest, Hungary," he said.
- Trump also wrote that Putin congratulated him on the deal to end the war in Gaza.
The other side: Putin's foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters that it was Trump who proposed holding the summit in Budapest, and stressed Putin agreed immediately.
- Ushakov added that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov would speak to Rubio in the coming days to start working on the summit.
- Putin raised the issue of possible supply of Tomahawks to Ukraine in his call with Trump on Thursday, Ushakov told reporters.
- He stressed that Putin told Trump the Tomahawks would not change the situation on the battlefield, but would harm U.S.-Russian relations and the chance to move forward in the peace process.
What to watch: Trump said last week that he told Zelensky he might give Putin a new ultimatum: either Russia holds serious peace talks or Ukraine gets Tomahawks.
- The missiles could reach Moscow, and Zelensky has argued they could force Putin to the negotiating table. The Kremlin expressed "extreme concern" over the Tomahawks proposal.
- A Ukrainian official told Axios on Wednesday that Ukraine was still unsure whether Trump would agree to provide Tomahawks.
- Ukraine also wants to speed up deliveries of other U.S.-made weaponry, particularly Patriot missile defense systems.
This story has been updated with Trump's announcement of an upcoming summit.
