Media: Hungary — possible venue for Putin-Zelenskyy meeting

A meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy could take place in Hungary within the next two weeks, according to a senior US administration official, as preparations for a trilateral summit with US President Donald Trump are reportedly underway.

Trump, in a social media post late on August 18, said he had called Putin and begun arranging a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders, to be followed by a trilateral summit among the three presidents. European sources indicated that Putin himself suggested to Reuters that sequence of meetings, Caliber.Az reports. 

However, French President Emmanuel Macron suggested that Geneva, Switzerland, could host a peace summit between Putin and Zelenskyy. 

Speaking after the high-stakes meetings with Zelenskyy, Trump and other European leaders at the White House on August 18, Macron said in an interview with French news channel LCI that the announced summit “will be [hosted by] a neutral country, maybe Switzerland —  I'm pushing for Geneva — or another country.”

“The last time there were bilateral talks, they were held in Istanbul,” Macron added, referring to three rounds of lower-level negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Türkiye between May and July.

Rejecting the idea of holding a meeting in Paris “like in 2019,” the French leader noted that the situation is “in a different phase” and that it is necessary to find a “neutral country.”

During the nighttime press conference, Macron also discussed the possibility of European countries and Türkiye participating in such negotiations — referring to “those whose security depends on the outcome of the conflict.”

By Sabina Mammadli