«I think we’ll get there… We’re on the path to trying to make a deal. If we don’t do it, a lot of people will pay a big price”: Donald Trump displays moderate optimism ahead of the Budapest summit with Vladimir Putin, which the respective foreign ministers will probably discuss on Thursday at a location yet to be determined after their cordial phone call on Monday.
The face-to-face meeting could be at the end of October or more likely at the beginning of November, after the meeting with Xi on the sidelines of the Asean summit in South Korea: two events that could mark the fate of the world, at least in the short term.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto is arriving in Washington to discuss the logistical details of the summit, while Sofia is ready to provide a safe air corridor for the Tsar to reach Budapest, avoiding the ICC arrest warrant.
The American president, speaking to reporters during the meeting at the White House with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, actually sent ambiguous and contradictory signals on the resolution of the conflict, stating that “Ukraine could still win, but I don’t think it will.” Then adding that “anything could happen”.
After the last tense face-to-face with Volodymyr Zelensky, the tycoon has frozen for now the possibility of supplying Kiev with Tomahawk missiles and tried to convince the Ukrainian leader to reach an agreement: first by ceding all of Donbass, even if he denied having spoken about it with Putin, then by freezing the conflict on the front line, but without talking about security guarantees anymore.
A turnaround that has led the Europeans to rush to Zelensky’s rescue, with an acceleration in the use of Russian assets (on the table at the EU summit on Thursday), the threat of another package of sanctions after the 19th which should be approved in a few days, the green light by majority to the European Commission’s proposal on the stop to gas and LNG from Moscow, the completion of the examination to open negotiations for accession to the EU.
And a new meeting of the coalition of the willing on Friday in London. It was called by Emmanuel Macron, who also issued a warning to The Donald: the Budapest summit between Trump and Putin is “a good thing” if they meet “to discuss their bilateral agenda” but “if the topic is Ukraine, Kiev should also participate and if the topic is European security, the EU should also sit at that table”.
It is the line of Brussels, as the EU high representative Kaja Kallas warned: «Donald Trump is sincere in wanting to end the war in Ukraine, it is Russia that is not», he underlined, inviting us «not to be distracted and convince our allies around the world that nothing concrete will happen at these meetings if Ukraine and Europe are not sitting at the table».
It is also the message relaunched by Zelensky himself, who said he was ready to participate in the summit, despite believing that Budapest is not “the best place for this meeting”, given the friendly relations between Orbán and Putin.
“If it is an invitation in the form of a three-way meeting” or “travelling diplomacy, where President Trump meets with Putin and separately with me, then, in one form or another, we will accept.” But so far no invitation has arrived, a situation that recalls Jannacci’s famous song “I’m coming too, no you, no”.
“We are close to a possible end to the war but this does not mean that it will definitely end,” Zelensky slows down, warning that the war in Ukraine is not like the one in Gaza which Trump managed to stop. Meanwhile, the leader of Kiev, after stopping the Tomahawk missiles to attack Russia in depth, falls back on defensive systems against Moscow’s incessant attacks (three missiles and 60 drones during the night) and asks for 25 Patriots, which he hopes to purchase with the seized Russian assets.