US President Donald Trump has put forward a rough timeframe for his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest.
"I'll be meeting him probably over the next two weeks," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
Trump also addressed the Ukrainian request for US-made Tomahawk missiles, seemingly cooling off on providing them after the phone call with Putin.
He warned the United States could not "deplete" its own stock of the missiles, adding that when he addressed the issue with Putin, he "didn't like the idea."
Kyiv did not know in advance about Trump-Putin summit — sources
The Ukrainian delegation in Washington did not know about plans for a summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, sources told DW's US correspondent Misha Komadovsky.
Trump announced the planned summit after a phone call with Putin earlier on Thursday.
He said it was due to be held in Budapest, Hungary, but did not disclose the location.
Zelenskyy aims to use Gaza ceasefire momentum for peace in Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was planning on building on the momentum currently in place since a ceasefire agreement in Gaza was reached, ahead of his meeting with US President Donald Trump on Friday.
"We expect that the momentum of curbing terror and war that succeeded in the Middle East will help to end Russia’s war against Ukraine," Zelenskyy said on X. "Putin is certainly no braver than Hamas or any other terrorist."
The Ukrainian president stressed that there "must be no alternative but peace and reliably guaranteed security."
Zelenskyy is reportedly due to discuss Kyiv's request for US-made Tomahawk missiles in his meeting with Trump.
On Thursday, following a phone call between Trump and Putin, the Kremlin said the Russian leader warned against supplying Ukraine with the missiles.
"We can already see that Moscow is rushing to resume dialogue as soon as it hears about Tomahawks," Zelenskyy said, in seeming reference to a Trump-Putin summit announced earlier by the US president.
Zelenskyy arrives in Washington DC
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy touched down in Washington DC on Thursday, as he prepares for an Oval Office meeting with US President Donald Trump on Friday.
In a post on X, Zelenskyy said he was meeting representatives of defense companies to discuss "additional supplies of air defense systems." The Ukrainian president also said he plans to meet representatives of US energy companies.
"Now, as Russia is betting on terror against our energy sector and carrying out daily strikes, we are working to ensure Ukraine’s resilience," Zelenskyy said.
The Ukrainian president posted a video showing him arriving at the airport.
Preparations for US-Russia summit in Hungary 'underway,' Orban says
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he spoke on the phone with US President Donald Trump after Trump announced he was meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Hungarian capital Budapest.
"Preparations for the USA-Russia peace summit are underway," Orban said in a post on X. "Hungary is the island of PEACE!"
The summit's date has yet to be revealed.
Orban has long been Putin's greatest ally in Europe, a rare outlieramong the otherwise united bloc.
Putin told Trump that Tomahawk choice could hurt peace process, Kremlin says
Russia's President Vladimir Putin warned US President Donald Trump against giving in to Ukraine's request for Tomahawk cruise missiles, the Kremlin said.
Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters on Thursday that Putin told the US president that giving Ukraine Tomahawk missiles would harm US-Russia ties and the peace process.
Ushakov said that the phone call took place at Russia's initiative.
"It was a highly substantive conversation, and at the same time, it was extremely frank and trustful," the AFP news agency quoted him as saying.
On the Trump-Putin summit, the Kremlin aide said top diplomats Marco Rubio and Sergei Lavrov will first speak on the phone in the coming days, adding that the work to pave the way for the summit would begin "immediately."
