Sawt Falasteen - Trump says to meet Putin in Budapest after 'great' call

Trump did not give a date for the meeting in Budapest, which would be his second with Putin since returning to office. The pair met in Alaska in August without a breakthrough on ending Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The Kremlin said it would start "immediately" preparing the summit following the "extremely frank and trustful" call.

But Ukraine's envoy to Washington said Russia was already rejecting Trump's peace efforts through "terror" strikes.

The planned summit represents yet another wild swing in Trump's relations with Putin, which warmed up earlier this year, before the US president became increasingly frustrated with the Russian president's refusal to end the war.

"I believe great progress was made with today's telephone conversation," Trump said on his Truth Social network.

Senior US and Russian officials including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio would hold "initial meetings" next week in an as yet to be decided location, Trump added.

"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," he said.

- 'Peace-loving people' -

Budapest had been discussed as a possible venue for the previous Trump-Putin meeting before they settled on Alaska.

"The planned meeting between the American and Russian presidents is great news for the peace-loving people of the world. We are ready!" Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has maintained friendly relations with both, said on X.

The Kremlin hailed the "highly substantive" Putin-Trump call, which Putin's top aide Yuri Ushakov told journalists was at Russia's initiative.

Putin meanwhile told Trump that giving Ukraine long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles would "not change the situation on the battlefield, but will significantly damage relations between our countries," added Ushakov.

"Not to mention the prospects for peaceful resolution."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who arrived in Washington on Thursday, now finds himself once again navigating a delicate situation following the call on the eve of his own meeting with Trump.

Zelensky has carefully rebuilt ties with Trump since February, when they sparred during a now infamous televised meeting at the White House during which Trump said "you don't have the cards."

For Ukraine the "main topic of discussion is Tomahawks," a senior Ukrainian official told AFP before Trump's Truth, referring to its request for the missiles that have a range of around 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers).

While Trump on Truth Social said that he would "discuss my conversation with President Putin, and much more" with Zelensky, he did not mention Tomahawks in his post.

- War crimes warrant -

But Trump had said over the weekend that he might warn Putin that he would send the missiles to Ukraine if Russia did not end the war.

The US leader believes that he has the momentum to end the Ukraine war following the Gaza truce deal he brokered.

Trump said in his post that Putin congratulated him on the deal and that he believed Middle East peace would "help our negotiation" in ending the Gaza war.

Hopes have been raised and dashed before over peace in Ukraine, a conflict Trump once promised to end within 24 hours.

Trump had hoped the Alaska summit on August 15 would pave the way to a deal but Putin apparently stuck to his guns over his insistence that Ukraine must demilitarize and Russia should keep its gains.

The choice of Budapest for the next summit is meanwhile designed to sidestep an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for Putin for alleged war crimes.

Hungary has announced its withdrawal from the International Criminal Court, yet 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.

L.AbuTayeh--SF-PST