Trump Plans To Meet Putin Within Two Weeks As Russia-Ukraine War Intensifies
Trump said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would first have talks with Russian officials.
US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he plans to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Hungarian capital Budapest in the coming two weeks.
"I'll be meeting him probably over the next two weeks," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, adding that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would first have talks with Russian officials.
"In two weeks or so... Marco Rubio will be meeting with his counterpart Sergey Lavrov... It was a very productive phone call (with Russian President Putin). I will be meeting with him and we will decide. Tomorrow I will be meeting with (Ukrainian) President Zelenskyy and tell him about the call... The two of them have a terrible relationship... We have now done (resolved) 8 wars, and we will make this number 9," Trump said.
Trump and Putin agreed to the meeting during a two-hour phone call on Thursday. The US and Russia will hold high-level staff talks next week, followed by a leaders summit in Budapest “to see if we can bring this ‘inglorious’ War, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end,” Trump posted on social media.
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.
Zelenskiy has said that such attacks would help force Putin into negotiations to end his invasion of Ukraine, now in its fourth year. Trump, too, has recently indicated eagerness to ramp up pressure on the Russian leader, teasing the prospect of allowing Ukraine access to Tomahawks.
Trump said he would share details of his conversation with Putin with Zelenskiy.
Putin has shown no signs he is willing to compromise, instead continuing to launch attacks on Ukraine. His forces have targeted Ukrainian energy infrastructure in recent weeks to devastating effect with cold winter weather approaching, a bid to demoralize the civilian population. More than half of Ukraine’s domestic gas production was wiped out after a string attacks in October.
