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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.
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