After speaking for more than two hours on Thursday with President Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump said he planned to meet with the Russian leader in Hungary in ‘two weeks or so’ to discuss ways to bring an end to Moscow’s three-year invasion of Ukraine.
Trump held what he termed a ‘productive’ call with his Russian counterpart a day before he was set to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who is expected to make the case that the United States should give Kyiv weapons capable of striking deep inside Russia.
But after days of suggesting he would allow the sale of Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv, Trump abruptly expressed trepidation over further arming Ukraine, signaling that he might back off if Putin proves willing to negotiate a diplomatic end to the conflict.
The decision to hold the call with Putin, after days of expressing his increasing frustration over the Russian leader’s unwillingness to take substantive steps toward peace, and on the eve of meeting with Zelensky, signaled a familiar pattern for Trump’s handling of the war.
On multiple occasions this year, Trump has come right to the edge of imposing penalties on Russia or giving powerful new military aid to Ukraine, only to speak with Putin and raise hopes for a diplomatic solution – so far with little to show for it.
Trump’s critics said he was again falling into a trap of rewarding Putin with a summit meeting without being assured of getting anything in return, allowing Russia to keep delaying and fighting the war on its terms.
‘After walking away from his Alaska summit with Putin empty-handed, President Trump has now decided to reward Putin again by rolling out the red carpet in Hungary,’ said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
After his meeting with Zelensky at the White House on Friday, Trump said, he will send his senior advisers, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to meet with Putin’s senior officials.
Yuri Ushakov, an aide to Putin, told Russian news agencies that envoys from the two countries would meet ‘without delay’ to lay the groundwork for the summit.
Trump then is expected to meet with Putin in Budapest, in a summit hosted by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.