US President Donald Trump has said he will meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Budapest after a "great" call aimed at ending the war in Ukraine. The announcement comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visits the White House on Friday to seek US-made Tomahawk missiles.
Following a telephone call, Trump said he expected to meet Putin in Budapest within the next two weeks for what would be their second summit since he returned for a second administration at the White House in January.
The Kremlin described the conversation between the men as "extremely frank and trustful". A spokesperson said the Russian government would prepare for the summit.
Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, insisted that the threat of Tomahawks had pushed Moscow to negotiate.
"I believe great progress was made with today's telephone conversation," Trump said on his Truth Social network.
He said he and Putin would meet to "see if we can bring this 'inglorious' War, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end."
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'Very productive call'
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio would meet his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, to sort out summit details.
Trump said Putin was unhappy with the possibility of Ukraine acquiring the Tomahawk missiles which have a 1,600-km range.
But he appeared to cast doubt on whether Ukraine would receive the arms.
"We need them too, so I don't know what we can do about that," Trump said.
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Changing attitudes
Trump's relations with Putin have blown hot and cold since his return. After an initial rapprochement, Trump has shown increasing frustration, particularly since he came away from Alaska with no end to the war he once promised to solve within 24 hours.
Zelensky meanwhile has gone the opposite way, winning Trump's support after a disastrous initial meeting in February when Trump berated him in front of the cameras.
But Trump's latest swing appears to have moved the dial again, leaving Zelensky having to negotiate the situation with Ukraine's main military backer.
Zelensky said as he arrived on Thursday in Washington that he hoped the momentum of the Middle East peace deal Trump brokered would help to end the war in Ukraine.
"We can already see that Moscow is rushing to resume dialogue as soon as it hears about Tomahawks," Zelensky added.
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'Peace summit'
The Kremlin hailed the "highly substantive" Putin-Trump call, which Putin's top aide Yuri Ushakov told journalists was at Russia's initiative.
But Putin told Trump that giving Ukraine Tomahawks would "not change the situation on the battlefield" and would harm "prospects for peaceful resolution," added Ushakov.
Budapest had been discussed as a possible venue for the previous Trump-Putin meeting before they settled on Alaska in August.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has maintained friendly relations with both men, said later that he had spoken to Trump. "Preparations for the USA-Russia peace summit are underway," he said on social media.
The choice of Budapest also sidesteps an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant for Putin for alleged war crimes.
Hungary has announced its withdrawal from the ICC yet is still theoretically a member until June 2026.
Orban gave Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a promise that he would not carry out the warrant when Netanyahu visited Hungary in April.
(with newswires)
