President Trump announced that he will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest within the next two weeks for new peace talks aimed at ending the Russia-Ukraine war. Speaking after what he described as a “very productive” two-hour phone call with Putin, Trump revealed that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will hold preparatory meetings shortly. The president also confirmed he will brief Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during their White House meeting on the details of his call with Putin, describing the relationship between the two leaders as “terrible” but insisting he is determined to broker “war number nine.” Trump reiterated that he wants to end the war to “save lives” and claimed that without his leadership, “this could have led to World War III.” He also joked that he directly told Putin, “Would you mind if I gave a couple thousand Tomahawks to your opposition?”—a remark underscoring the tension surrounding possible U.S. arms supplies to Ukraine. The meeting in Hungary, hosted by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, will follow a series of regional diplomatic breakthroughs, including the Trump-brokered Gaza peace agreement.