President Donald Trump said Thursday on Truth Social that he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest, Hungary, for a second round of in-person talks to end the war in Ukraine.
Trump's comments came after a phone call with Putin and a day before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to visit the White House.
Trump said he and Putin "agreed that there will be a meeting of our High Level Advisors, next week," though the location has not been determined. The U.S. delegation will be led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, after which Trump and Putin will meet, he said.
"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 wrote.
Trump said his call with Putin was "very productive" and that he believed "great progress was made with today’s telephone conversation."
Putin’s special envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, shared Trump’s post on X, calling the meeting “positive” and "important for the world.”
In a subsequent post, he accused “warmongers” from the United Kingdom and the European Union of trying “very very hard to derail peace prospects,” without elaborating on the claim. “But dialogue and peace and the US-Russia cooperation will prevail,” he wrote.
Trump and Putin met in Alaska in August for an initial round of talks on ending the war, but that summit ultimately did not result in any movement toward peace. The leaders spent nearly three hours in the highly anticipated meeting, which saw Trump give Putin a red-carpet welcome — drawing fire from Trump's critics.
Zelenskyy is set to visit the White House on Friday as Trump weighs whether to approve Tomahawk missiles for Ukraine. The long-range missiles could be used strike deep inside Russia, and if the U.S. supplied the weapons, it would mark a new level of support from the administration for Ukraine.
Trump spoke with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine days after Israel and Hamas agreed to his peace proposal to end the war in Gaza, leading to a ceasefire and the release of all living hostages held in the territory and Palestinian prisoners from the Middle Eastern country.
Trump said in his Truth Social post that he believed "that the Success in the Middle East will help in our negotiation in attaining an end to the War with Russia/Ukraine."
During his campaign, Trump vowed to quickly end the war in Ukraine, going so far as to say he could do so within 24 hours of taking office. As the months dragged on without a deal, Trump downplayed his previous predictions and his rhetoric toward Putin shifted, saying Putin had "let me down."
Trump's stance on any concessions from Ukraine has also taken a dramatic turn. While he previously said the two countries might need to engage in the "swapping of territories," which Zelenskyy has adamantly opposed, last month Trump said on Truth Social that Ukraine "with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form."
