Trump blindsided Zelensky with Putin call – Axios
Vladimir Zelensky was “surprised” upon landing in Washington that US President Donald Trump had held a substantive phone call with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, Axios has reported.
During the two-hour-30-minute call, reportedly proposed by Moscow, Putin agreed to meet Trump in Hungary within weeks. This call, as well as the location of the proposed summit – described by Axios as “the least Ukraine-friendly country in the European Union” – reportedly caught Zelensky’s team off guard.
Trump characterized his conversation with Putin as “very productive” while the Russian president's foreign policy aide, Yury Ushakov, described it as “very substantive and at the same time extremely frank.”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban – a vocal critic of the Western approach to the Ukraine conflict and of Zelensky’s use of what he branded “moral blackmail” to secure military aid for Ukraine – also welcomed the call.
Zelensky is set to meet Trump on Friday to discuss his request for Tomahawk cruise missiles that would allow him directly target Moscow, a threat Russia has said would represent a significant escalation of the conflict.
Media reports have broadly interpreted Trump’s new diplomatic engagement with Putin as an indication that Kiev will not receive the Tomahawks. Putin, Trump said, “didn’t like the idea” of Ukraine acquiring the nuclear-capable weapons.
Moscow has repeatedly stated that it won’t yield to foreign pressure and will achieve its goals in the Ukraine conflict, either diplomatically or militarily.
