WASHINGTON,
US President Donald Trump questioned Kyiv's request for Tomahawk missiles just one day before hosting Ukraine's leader at the White House, and he announced that he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Hungary following a "very productive" discussion Thursday.
In his most recent sudden change of heart over Russia's 2022 invasion, Trump stated that he anticipated meeting Putin in Budapest in the coming two weeks. This would be the two countries' second summit since the American returned to power.
The "extremely frank and trustful" call was hailed by the Kremlin, which also declared that it was getting ready for the summit right now.
Despite dealing with yet another Trump change in the war, Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, maintained that Moscow was forced to engage in negotiations because of the threat posed by Tomahawks.
Trump stated on his Truth Social network that he and Putin would meet to "see if we can bring this 'inglorious' War, between Russia and Ukraine to an end." He added, "I believe great progress was made with today's telephone conversation."
Later, in the Oval Office, the 79-year-old Republican told reporters that the discussion was "very productive" and that he anticipated meeting "within two weeks or so, pretty quick."
Trump also stated that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet with Russian colleague Sergei Lavrov as soon as possible to finalize the specifics of the summit.
"Momentum"
Trump said the Russian leader “didn’t like it” when he raised the possibility during their call of giving Moscow’s enemy Ukraine the missiles with a 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometer) range.
But Trump appeared to cast doubt on whether Ukraine would actually get the American-made arms it covets, saying the United States could not “deplete” its own supply.
“We need them too, so I don’t know what we can do about that,” he said.
Trump’s relations with Putin—a leader for whom he has repeatedly expressed admiration over the years—have blown hot and cold since he returned to the White House in January.
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 the US president 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 Thursday in Washington that he hopes the “momentum” of the Middle East peace deal Trump brokered will help end the war in Ukraine.
“We can already see that Moscow is rushing to resume dialogue as soon as it hears about Tomahawks,” Zelensky said, adding that he’ll also be meeting US defence companies to discuss additional supplies of air defence systems.
‘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.
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 is underway,” he said on X.
The choice of Budapest also sidesteps an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for Putin for alleged war crimes.
Hungary has announced its withdrawal from the ICC but is still theoretically a member until June 2026.
But Orban gave Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a promise that he would not carry out the warrant when Netanyahu visited Hungary in April.
In Ukraine the war ground on, with Moscow renewing its attacks on Kyiv’s energy grid.
Russian strikes forced Ukraine to introduce nationwide rolling power cuts for the second day in a row, in the cold season when temperatures can fall to zero at night.
-BSS
