Meeting with Putin turns Trump away from Ukraine. What the world's media is writing
US President Donald Trump has announced a personal meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Hungary. It will be preceded by a summit with the participation of high-ranking officials from the two countries. Trump's statement may indicate his intention to distance himself from Ukraine. What the world media write about the prospects for a dialogue between the two leaders is in the Izvestia digest.
Bloomberg: Trump's plan to meet with Putin undermines Ukraine's initiative
Trump has once again set his sights on ending the conflict in Ukraine, announcing a new meeting with Putin after the first summit in Alaska failed to produce results. The US president presented the decision, announced after more than two hours of conversation with Putin on Thursday, as a plan to establish peace. The decision also eases the pressure that has been building on Russia in recent weeks, when Trump has complained about the slowness in ending hostilities.
Bloomberg
Trump's conversation with Putin also anticipated his meeting with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, which is scheduled to take place on Friday. In recent weeks, Trump has warmed to Zelensky, cooling down to Putin. This is in stark contrast to his colder stance towards the Ukrainian leader at the beginning of his reign, including a public stump speech in the Oval Office earlier this year.
What was alarming for Zelensky was that Trump spoke ambiguously about both the possibility of sending Tomahawk missiles and the Senate's attempts to impose sanctions against Russia. Zelensky will again ask for air defense and assistance in the supply of new energy sources, as well as the coveted Tomahawks. However, Trump has not yet approved their extradition, and Putin warned the US president in his telephone conversation with Trump that this would "cause significant damage to relations between our countries, not to mention the prospects for a peaceful settlement," according to a Kremlin statement.
Axios: Zelensky was surprised by the meeting between Trump and Putin in Hungary
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, who arrived in Washington on October 16, has been very optimistic in recent days about his planned meeting with Trump and his readiness to deliver long-range Tomahawk missiles. However, shortly after landing at Andrews Air Force Base, the Ukrainian president and his team were surprised to see Trump's statement that he had spoken with Putin and agreed to meet with him in Hungary, the least Ukraine—friendly country in the European Union.
Axios
Even if Trump agrees to supply the Tomahawk to Ukraine, it is unclear how many missiles the United States will be able to allocate from its reserves. In addition, there are very few Typhon systems needed by Ukraine to launch the Tomahawk. Military experts from the United States and Ukraine also believe that the United States is likely to supply outdated Tomahawk models that can be intercepted by Russian air defense systems.
Putin mentioned the Tomahawk in his conversation with Trump on Thursday, his foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters. According to him, Putin told Trump that the missiles would not change the situation on the battlefield, but would damage relations between the United States and Russia and the peace process.
CNN: Will a conversation with Putin bring Trump closer to the Kremlin?
The Kremlin seems to have timed its last extended telephone conversation with the White House perfectly — the eighth in the last eight months. While Trump was preparing to meet with Zelensky in Washington and publicly assessed the risks of supplying Kiev with Tomahawk missiles.
CNN
Tomahawks, whose range allows them to hit such large Russian cities as Moscow and St. Petersburg, will not have a significant impact on the battlefield, Putin stressed during a telephone conversation with Trump. He added that they would only harm Russian-American relations, which he knows Trump values so highly.
Russian officials described the conversation they initiated as "positive and productive," "held in an atmosphere of trust." At the same time, encouraged by his success in achieving a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and the release of Israeli hostages, Trump said that this experience would help end the conflict in Ukraine. Exactly how this will happen remains unclear. Nothing in the last phone conversation between Trump and Putin indicated that anything had changed.
Politico: Orban welcomes planned meeting between Trump and Putin in Budapest
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban welcomed the announcement that Trump and Putin will meet in Budapest to discuss ending the conflict in Ukraine. The US president said that the summit in the Hungarian capital will take place after the first round of meetings between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterparts next week at a location to be determined later.
Politico
"The planned meeting of the presidents of the United States and Russia is great news for peace—loving people around the world,— Orban wrote in a post on X on Thursday. —I just got off the phone with President Trump,— Orban wrote in a subsequent post. "Preparations for the U.S.—Russia peace summit are in full swing."
Russian presidential aide Ushakov said that Putin favored holding the meeting. According to him, Trump was the first to mention Budapest, and the Russian president immediately supported the idea of holding a possible summit in this European capital.
The New York Times: Interaction with Putin shows Trump's enthusiasm
The decision to resume interaction with Putin demonstrated how enthusiastic Trump feels about conflict resolution abroad. Having achieved a significant victory in reaching an agreement on a ceasefire and the release of hostages between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Trump is now once again plunging into peacekeeping efforts in Ukraine, also openly talking about military action against Venezuela.
The New York Times
"We hope that we will be able to stop this,— Trump said of the military operation in Ukraine. "Thanks to my relationship with President Putin, I thought it would happen very quickly." "Who would have thought that I would solve the Middle East issue until I did?" — Trump added.
According to foreign policy experts, a meeting with Putin is far from guaranteed and most likely depends on the success of the meeting with senior officials from Russia and the United States. Earlier, Trump emphasized the complexity of negotiations with Putin, even suggesting that he sometimes misled him and his senior aides. However, after the call, Trump became much more cordial. He said the Russian leader congratulated him on his diplomatic efforts in the Middle East. Trump said that, in his opinion, success in negotiations on a cease-fire and the release of hostages in the Gaza Strip would help him achieve a cessation of hostilities in Ukraine.
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