Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to join Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump at an upcoming summit in Hungaryif invited. This was reported by the AFP agency on Monday, whose report was monitored by TASR.
- Zelensky expressed readiness for a summit with Putin and Trump.
- Trump announced a planned meeting with Putin in Budapest.
- Zelensky criticized the choice of Hungary as the location of the summit.
- Kyiv prefers neutral countries for trilateral negotiations.
- Trump supports direct talks to end the conflict in Ukraine.
“If it’s an invitation in a format where we meet as a trio or in a shuttle diplomacy format where President Trump meets with Putin and President Trump meets with me – then we will come to an agreement in one format or another,” Zelenskyy told reporters.
Last week Thursday, after a phone call with Putin, Trump announced their joint meeting in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, which will probably take place in a few weeks. However, the Ukrainian president criticized the choice of Hungary as the meeting place. “I don’t believe that a prime minister who blocks Ukraine everywhere can do something positive for Ukrainians,” said Zelensky, referring to Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán.
Kyiv has repeatedly declared that it is ready to join a trilateral meeting in the format of Zelensky – Putin – Trump in several “neutral” countries, including Turkey, Switzerland and the Vatican. It was in Budapest that a memorandum was signed in 1994 by which Russia and other signatories undertook to ensure the security of Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan in exchange for giving up the nuclear weapons that remained on their territory from Soviet times.
Since returning to the White House earlier this year, Trump has sought a quick end to the war in Ukraine, pushing for a series of direct talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials and hosting Putin in Alaska, which failed to break the deadlock.
The aforementioned phone call between Trump and Putin was his first contact with the Russian president since the August meeting in Alaska. Trump subsequently received Zelensky at the White House on Friday, October 17. According to sources familiar with the Financial Times, Trump urged acceptance of Russia’s terms for ending the war – handing over all of Donbas to Ukraine – and warned that Putin threatened Ukraine with “destruction” if it did not do so. Sources added that the conversation repeatedly devolved into an “argument”.
In an interview with reporters on Monday night, Trump denied that he had urged Zelenskyi to have Ukraine accept the conditions set by Russia. He reiterated that his proposal is to maintain the current positions of Russia and Ukraine along the front line.
