Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is willing to join the summit arranged between United States President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Zelenskyy said he would take part if he were invited. The Ukrainian president is wary of the setting for the meeting in Budapest, given Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s warm relations with Moscow and antagonistic approach to Kyiv.
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“If I am invited to Budapest – if it is an invitation in a format where we meet as three or, as it’s called, shuttle diplomacy, President Trump meets with Putin and President Trump meets with me – then in one format or another, we will agree,” Zelenskyy said.
No date has been set for the summit in the Hungarian capital, although it is thought likely to be held in the coming weeks.
Trump continues to try to force an end to the fighting, which has been ongoing since Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022.
The US leader has not presented any detailed proposals, and wavers in his approach. But he has grown increasingly frustrated with faltering peace efforts.
In recent months, he expressed disappointment at Putin for not making meaningful concessions after the two met in Alaska in August. He has floated the idea that the US could send Ukraine long-range Tomahawk missiles, a move Moscow said would escalate the conflict.
‘We stand where we stand’
In late September, Trump said he believes Ukraine could win back all its territory with help from the European Union and NATO.
However, this week, he changed tune again following a phone call with Putin, and called for freezing the current battle lines.
Zelenskyy, who reportedly had a tense discussion with Trump at the White House on Friday, said he accepts the idea of freezing the front lines but urged the US to exert more pressure on Moscow.
“After many rounds of discussion over more than two hours with [Trump] and his team, his message, in my view, is positive – that we stand where we stand on the front line,” Zelenskyy said on Sunday.
Looking ahead to the Budapest summit, Zelenskyy voiced concern about the host.
Orban, the closest EU leader to Russia, has persistently sought to disrupt Kyiv’s efforts to secure Western support and has tried to block aid from the bloc to Ukraine on several occasions.
Zelenskyy said he doubts Orban “can do anything positive for Ukrainians” or “provide a balanced contribution”.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that Budapest was chosen as the venue for the summit because Trump has warm relations with Orban and Putin has constructive relations with Orban.
However, it is also notable that the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest on war crimes charges.
Hungary launched the process of leaving the ICC as it hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has also been indicted as a war criminal, earlier this year.
Budapest has pledged that the Russian leader will not be arrested.
Zelenskyy also cautioned against another “Budapest scenario” – a reference to the 1994 Budapest Memorandum – in which Moscow and other powers provided security assurances to Ukraine and other former Soviet states in exchange for their giving up the nuclear arsenals they inherited from Soviet times.
European foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas expressed disappointment with Hungary over Putin’s potential visit within the bloc.
“It’s not nice to see that a person under [an] ICC arrest warrant is coming to a European country,” Kallas said as she arrived at a meeting of EU foreign ministers.
Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys asserted: “The only place for Putin in Europe is The Hague, in front of the tribunal, not in any of our capitals.”
Kallas added that another round of EU sanctions on Russia, the 19th overall, would likely be approved this week.
Kremlin spokesman Peskov told reporters that work on the summit was only just beginning.
He added a claim that while Russia is engaged in serious work with the US to seek a peace deal, Ukraine is sending contradictory signals that make the process harder.
