Conversation between leaders of the United States and Russia will take place in Budapest in the next two weeks, according to the American president
The Ukrainian president, , declared this Monday (20) that he is willing to participate in the meeting in Hungary between the Russian and American presidents, and , if he receives an invitation. “If I am invited to Budapest, if it is an invitation in a format in which the three of us meet, or as it is called, traveling diplomacy, President Trump meets with Putin and President Trump meets with me, then, in one format or another, we are in agreement,” said Zelensky in statements to journalists released this Monday.
Trump announced last week that he will meet with Putin in Budapest “in the next two weeks.” The goal is “to see if we can put an end to this no-glory war between and “. The last meeting between the two took place on August 15 in Alaska, although it did not lead to any concrete prospect of resolving the conflict, which began with the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
This Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Serguei Lavrov had a “constructive conversation” with his American counterpart, “about possible concrete steps” related to the meeting, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
A day after announcing the meeting in Budapest, Trump met with Zelensky at the White House. During the meeting, he urged his Ukrainian counterpart to reach an agreement with Russia. But Ukraine’s president said Moscow continues to want Kiev’s forces to withdraw from Donbass, an industrial region in the east of the country. “We are not going to hand victory to the Russians,” he insisted.
Russia claimed in 2022 the annexation of the Ukrainian regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Donetsk, just months after launching the invasion against Ukraine.
In Brussels, the head of European diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, defended Kiev’s “territorial integrity”. “If we cede these territories, we will send a message to everyone that all you need to do is use force against your neighbors to get what you want,” he said.
The French president, , considered, in turn, that Ukrainians and Europeans “should be present” at the announced meeting.
*With information from AFP
Published by Nícolas Robert
