White House eyes Budapest for peace talks with Zelenskyy and Putin

The White House is planning for a possible trilateral meeting between the U.S., Russian and Ukrainian presidents in the Hungarian capital of Budapest as the next steps in negotiating an end to the years-long war, according to a Trump administration official and a person close to the administration.

The U.S. Secret Service is preparing for the summit in the Central European nation led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has been close with President Donald Trump since the American president’s first term in office.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said "I’m not going to confirm or deny locations" when asked about Budapest during Tuesday’s White House media briefing.

While the Secret Service often scouts multiple locations and the ultimate venue could change, Budapest is emerging as a first choice for the White House, said the two people, both granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. Russian President Vladimir Putin told Trump he preferred Moscow and French President Emmanuel Macron pushed for Geneva as ideal meeting spots. Not to be left out, the Swiss foreign minister promised “immunity” to Putin for an outstanding war crimes warrant if the nation known for neutrality was chosen for peace talks.

Hungary would be an uncomfortable choice for Ukraine as it harkens back to the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, during which the U.S., the United Kingdom and Russia promised to uphold Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and respect for its border in exchange for relinquishing its nuclear weapons. Putin’s 2014 assault on Ukraine proved the agreement meaningless when none of the signatories provided military forces to counter the attacks.

But the summit itself is uncertain. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Monday following the European leaders’ meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House that a follow up talk between Putin and Zelenskyy could occur within weeks. Trump then announced on social media that he’d join the two for a trilateral meeting as a final step in the peace talks that gained momentum after Trump joined the Russian president in Alaska last week.

Now Russian officials are starting to slow walk any such encounter between Zelenskyy and Putin.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during an interview on state-controlled TV Tuesday that Moscow wouldn’t rule out talks with Ukraine, but insisted on following a process that would unfold “step by step, gradually, starting from the expert level and then going through all the necessary stages.”

Leavitt on Tuesday reiterated Putin has agreed to meet with Zelenskyy, adding that the White House was working with Russia and Ukraine to make the bilateral meeting happen.

“The president has spoken to both leaders about this and both leaders have expressed a willingness to sit down with each other,” Leavitt said.

Leavitt said the bilateral meeting with Putin and Zelenskyy could be followed by a trilateral one including Trump.

The Russian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Dan Caine will host his military counterparts from Germany, the U.K., France, Finland and Italy in Washington late Wednesday to begin discussions on security guarantees and how to implement them, according to a defense official and a person familiar with the matter, granted anonymity to discuss plans that are still evolving.

The 32 NATO defense chiefs on Wednesday also will meet virtually. NATO’s top general, Italian Adm. Giuseppe Dragone will host the call, the general announced on social media, which will include Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, the new head of the U.S. European Command and NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander.

The hastily called meetings underscore the massive task ahead for European allies as they weigh plans for sending a peacekeeping force to Ukraine and buying more American-made arms to send to Kyiv.

“There will be other meetings taking place in the coming days too, but details are still somewhat unclear,” one European diplomat said, adding that officials are scrambling to pull together diplomats and military officials from across the continent on very short notice.

"It's a positive that the U.S. confirmed that it will play a role in security guarantees," said a European official whose leader was at the White House meeting, and who was granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations.

"But until all the modalities are worked out, it's very hard to know how far they're willing to go," the person said. "Trump said nothing is all that complex, but it's not getting any easier from here."

Irie Sentner, Felicia Schwartz and Eli Stokols contributed to this report.