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US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Hungary to try to resolve the Ukraine war, but a date has not yet been set.
President Trump spoke by phone with President Putin on Thursday in light of Ukraine’s long-range missile push.
The call came ahead of President Trump’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the White House on Friday. President Zelenskiy is pressing the US president to sell Kiev Tomahawk missiles that would allow Ukraine’s military to strike deep into Russian territory.
Mr. Zelensky argued that such attacks would help Mr. Putin take more seriously Mr. Trump’s call for direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine to end the war.
President Trump told reporters accompanying him to Israel on Sunday that he planned to discuss tomahawks with President Putin as a way to pressure him to stop a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
President Trump said Sunday: “Do they want to move Tomahawk in that direction? I don’t think so.” “I think I might try talking to Russia about that.”
As the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas remains fragile in the Gaza Strip, President Trump said he is now focused on ending the war in Ukraine and is considering providing Kiev with long-range weapons in an effort to bring Moscow back to the negotiating table.
Ending the wars in Ukraine and Gaza are central to President Trump’s 2024 re-election campaign, in which he relentlessly criticized President Joe Biden for his handling of the conflicts.
But like his predecessor, Trump has been thwarted by Putin, who has unsuccessfully pressed the Russian leader to hold direct talks with Zelenskiy to end the war, which is approaching its fourth year.
But fresh out of the Gaza ceasefire, President Trump is expressing new confidence that he can finally make progress toward ending Russian aggression.
It has also signaled that it is prepared to increase pressure on Putin if he does not come to the table soon.
President Trump welcomed supporters of the White House Ballroom Project to dinner Wednesday night and said of the Russia-Ukraine war, “Interestingly, we’ve moved forward today because of what happened in the Middle East.”
In a speech to the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem earlier this week, President Trump predicted that a ceasefire in Gaza would be the basis for helping the United States normalize relations with Israel and many of its neighbors in the Middle East.
But President Trump also made clear that his current foreign policy priority is ending Europe’s largest armed conflict since World War II.
“First we have to end Russia,” Trump said, turning to special envoy Steve Witkoff, who is also Putin’s chief interlocutor in the administration.
“We have to finish it. If you don’t mind, Steve, let’s focus on Russia first. Okay?”
Additional sources of information • AP