Trump and Putin agree to a second meeting in Budapest to end the war in Ukraine

Washington/Moscow,.- The presidents of the United States, Donald Trump, and Russia, Vladimir Putin, agreed this Thursday during a phone call to hold a second meeting to negotiate the end of the war in Ukraine, which will be held in Budapest and for which there is still no specific date.

The phone conversation, the seventh since January, took place on the eve of Trump receiving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, amid warnings from the "Kremlin" for Washington not to supply Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv.

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Trump and Putin met on August 15th in Alaska for a summit in which no steps were taken to end hostilities in Ukraine and which was considered a diplomatic success for the Kremlin. In recent weeks, the American leader again expressed his frustration with Putin's refusal to stop the fighting and even encouraged Ukraine to continue the war until Russia is defeated. The phone call, however, served to seek a new approach and both agreed to meet soon in the capital of Hungary, whose prime minister, Viktor Orbán, is a close ally of both Trump and Putin. "President Putin and I will meet at an agreed location, Budapest, Hungary, to see if we can end this ignominious war between Russia and Ukraine," the American leader noted on his social network, Truth Social. Trump was the first to mention Budapest and Putin "immediately supported the idea of holding a possible summit in this European capital," declared Yuri Ushakov, advisor to the Russian Presidency, at a press conference. "They agreed that representatives from both countries will immediately begin preparations for the summit," Ushakov added. According to Trump, they both also decided that a meeting of high-level advisors will be held "at a place to be determined" next week, in which the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, will lead the US delegation. For the Republican, the conversation was "very productive" and he considered that the recent diplomatic success achieved with the peace agreement in Gaza "will contribute to ending the war in Russia and Ukraine".

The meeting with Zelensky and the Tomahawks

Trump will receive Zelensky at the White House this Friday for the third time, days after suggesting that he plans to deliver long-range American Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, which has been interpreted as a new strategic shift by Washington to increase pressure on Moscow. During the call, Putin emphasized that "Tomahawks will not change the situation on the battlefield, but will considerably damage" relations between Russia and the United States, said the Kremlin advisor. The Russian president also told Trump that "Russian forces have the strategic initiative" along the entire front and denounced that Ukraine "uses terrorist methods, attacks civilian targets and energy facilities" "Trump mentioned that tomorrow he will meet with Zelensky and added that during their conversation, he will naturally take into account the considerations put forward by the President of Russia," Ushakov said. Trump himself recalled in his Truth Social message that he will meet in the Oval Office with Zelensky and stated that they will talk about the conversation with Putin "and much more." He also said that Putin applauded the efforts of the American First Lady, Melania Trump, to reunify Ukrainian children separated from their families by the war and that he pledged to continue negotiations on this matter. "I think today's phone conversation has served to take a big step forward," Trump concluded. Russia and Ukraine continued their cross-attacks against energy infrastructure in their respective rear areas during the early hours of this Thursday. Zelensky will try to convince Trump to accelerate the transfer of more Patriot anti-aircraft systems capable of shooting down Russian ballistic missiles.