Zelenskyy disappointed that Trump and Putin choose Budapest as meeting venue

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes that Budapest is not the best location for the talks preliminarily agreed upon between US President Donald Trump and Russian ruler Vladimir Putin.

"I don't think Budapest is the best venue for this meeting. Of course, if it can bring peace, it doesn't matter in which country it takes place," Zelenskyy said at a meeting with journalists, as reported by Interfax-Ukraine.

Zelenskyy added that he had previously discussed the issue with Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and had proposed other potential options.

According to Zelenskyy, there were many "different worthy options" for hosting the talks, including Switzerland, Austria, the Vatican, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Türkiye.

"We are talking about peace in Ukraine, not about elections in Hungary. I don't think the prime minister who blocks Ukraine everywhere can do anything positive for Ukrainians – or even anything balanced," Zelenskyy said.

"It seems to me that among those constantly promoting the idea of Russia's supposed unconditional advantages in this war is the current Hungarian prime minister. And when we speak about mediation, I don't think the Hungarian prime minister has, let's say, an appropriate attitude to this," he added.

On 16 October, Trump spoke with Russian ruler Vladimir Putin for the first time in nearly two months and announced that they plan to meet in Budapest, which would be Putin's first appearance in the capital of an EU member state since the start of the full-scale war and would require him to fly over other EU countries.

During his meeting with Trump on Friday, President Zelenskyy said he was ready to join the upcoming leaders' meeting in Budapest.