Rubio replaces Witkoff to lead US delegation at planned Budapest summit with Russia - WSJ
Photo: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (Getty Images)
The US and Russia plan to hold a leaders' summit in Budapest in the coming weeks to discuss possible ways to end the war in Ukraine. For the first time, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will lead preparations for the meeting, The Wall Street Journal reports.
According to WSJ sources, the US hopes to lay the groundwork for an agreement by holding more lower-level meetings with Russia than before the talks in Alaska.
Sources also said that this time the American delegation will not be led by Trump's Special Envoy Steve Witkoff but by another official.
WSJ wrote that the American side will be headed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio instead of Witkoff, a change welcomed by Ukrainian and European officials.
Before the Alaska summit, when Witkoff met with Putin, media reports suggested that the Russian leader had agreed to withdraw troops from the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in exchange for control over the Donetsk region. Later reports indicated that Witkoff had misunderstood Putin and that Moscow's conditions remained as tough as before.
Trump has already announced that the new meetings are expected within two weeks. He said they will involve Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.
Trump noted that Rubio plans to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov soon, and that the time and place of the meeting are being finalized, possibly already set, referring to plans for a meeting with Putin.
Europe's reaction to the Budapest summit
This time, the Trump-Putin meeting is expected to take place in the Hungarian capital, Budapest.
According to El País, EU officials see it as an insult that the talks on peace will be held in Hungary, since the discussion on Ukraine will take place in an EU member state without the bloc's participation.
One European diplomat said that choosing Budapest could benefit Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán while also deepening divisions within the EU. The diplomat explained that the location was chosen carefully and could serve Russia's interests by exposing rifts within the bloc over the Kremlin. It could also give Orbán a significant boost ahead of next year's national elections.
Officials in Brussels say the Trump-Putin meeting could be useful if it helps make progress toward ending the war. Privately, however, several sources described it as a "political nightmare."
