Trump announces upcoming meeting with Putin in Budapest to discuss war in Ukraine

News Express |17th Oct 2025 | 141
Trump announces upcoming meeting with Putin in Budapest to discuss war in Ukraine

Trump and Putin at an earlier meeting




US President, Donald Trump, said on social media, Thursday, that he would meet with Russian President, Vladimir Putin, in Budapest, Hungary, to discuss the war in Ukraine, though he did not specify when that meeting may take place.

Trump announced the plans on Truth Social following a lengthy phone call with Putin, which he said “was a very productive one.”

“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. President Zelenskyy and I will be meeting tomorrow, in the Oval Office, where we will discuss my conversation with President Putin, and much more,” the president added.

Trump also noted that Secretary of State Marco Rubio will lead a delegation of high-level advisors to meet with Russian officials next week, with a location “to be determined.”

“At the conclusion of the call, we agreed that there will be a meeting of our High Level Advisors, next week. The United States’ initial meetings will be led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, together with various other people, to be designated,” the president wrote.

Putin immediately supported Trump’s idea of a planned summit in Budapest to discuss ending the Ukraine war, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said, describing the call between the two leaders as “highly informative and extremely frank.”

The call lasted nearly two-and-a-half hours and was held at the request of Russia, Ushakov said.

The plans come more than two months after Trump held his last in-person summit with Putin in Anchorage, Alaska.

Budapest was a finalist for to host that meeting before officials ultimately landed on Alaska, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has maintained a close relationship with Putin and Trump.

“Preparations for the USA-Russia peace summit are underway,” Orban announced on Thursday afternoon following a call with Tru mp.

“Hungary is the island of PEACE!” he posted on X.

‘A very good and productive call’

Trump said in his post on social media that he believes “great progress was made with today’s telephone conversation” with Putin and noted a number of topics of discussion.

“President Putin congratulated me and the United States on the Great Accomplishment of Peace in the Middle East, something that, he said, has been dreamed of for centuries. I actually believe that the Success in the Middle East will help in our negotiation in attaining an end to the War with Russia/Ukraine,” the president wrote in his social media post. “We also spent a great deal of time talking about Trade between Russia and the United States when the War with Ukraine is over.”

Putin also thanked first lady Melania Trump during the call for her advocacy for children, Trump said. “He was very appreciative, and said that this will continue,” he added.

The first lady announced last week that Russia had allowed eight Ukrainian children to reunite with their parents, following months of private discussions between Russian officials and the first lady’s office centered on children separated from their families during the war.

Pressed for more information after the conclusion of the call, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the administration would provide “more details as soon as we can.”

“This call literally just happened, so we will provide you with more details as soon as we can,” she told reporters.

Leavitt added that the call between the two leaders lasted “more than two hours.”

“I was just talking with the president and the secretary of state and the vice president, and it was a very good and productive call. It lasted more than two hours,” she told reporters.

Trump and Zelensky to meet Friday

The Trump-Putin call comes ahead of a meeting between the US leader and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday.

CNN previously reported that Zelensky told a group of journalists in Kyiv that the main topics of his conversation with the president at the White House will include “air defense and our possibilities with long-range (missiles to put) pressure on Russia.”

Trump has recently floated the possibility of giving Ukraine Tomahawk cruise missiles unless Russia dramatically changes its negotiating posture – a suggestion Zelensky pointed to as he announced his arrival in Washington, DC, on Thursday.

“Tomorrow, a meeting with President Trump is scheduled – and we expect that the momentum of curbing terror and war that succeeded in the Middle East will help to end Russia’s war against Ukraine,” Zelensky said on X. “The language of strength and justice will inevitably work against Russia as well. We can already see that Moscow is rushing to resume dialogue as soon as it hears about Tomahawks.”

While the topic of Tomahawks was not included in the president’s readout of his phone call with Russia’s leader, the Kremlin said Trump had told Putin that he would “take into account” Moscow’s concerns about American Tomahawks being supplied to Ukraine.

In Thursday’s call, Putin repeated his longstanding view that “the Tomahawks would not change the situation on the battlefield, but that all of this would cause significant damage to relations between our countries, not to mention the prospects for a peaceful resolution,” Ushakov said during a Kremlin briefing.

Ushakov added that Trump “also said that during his contact with Zelensky, he would, of course, take into account the considerations expressed by the president of Russia during today’s telephone conversation.”

CNN has reached out to the White House for comment. (CNN)




Comments

Post Comment

Saturday, October 18, 2025 2:19 AM
ADVERTISEMENT

Follow us on

GOCOP Accredited Member

GOCOP Accredited member
logo

NEWS EXPRESS is Nigeria’s leading online newspaper. Published by Africa’s international award-winning journalist, Mr. Isaac Umunna, NEWS EXPRESS is Nigeria’s first truly professional online daily newspaper. It is published from Lagos, Nigeria’s economic and media hub, and has a provision for occasional special print editions. Thanks to our vast network of sources and dedicated team of professional journalists and contributors spread across Nigeria and overseas, NEWS EXPRESS has become synonymous with newsbreaks and exclusive stories from around the world.

Contact

Adetoun Close, Off College Road, Ogba, Ikeja, Lagos State.
+234(0)8098020976, 07013416146, 08066020976
info@newsexpressngr.com

Find us on

Facebook
Twitter

Copyright NewsExpress Nigeria 2025