U.S. President Donald Trump spoke on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, one day before his next scheduled White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. After the call, Trump described the conversation as “very productive” and said that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet with Russian “high-level advisers” next week. Trump also revealed that he scheduled another in-person meeting with Putin, to be held in Budapest, Hungary, “to see if we can bring this ‘inglorious’ War between Russia and Ukraine to an end.”
According to Kremlin press pool journalist Dmitry Smirnov, Yuri Ushakov, President Putin’s foreign policy aide, said the telephone call lasted nearly 2.5 hours. Putin reportedly argued that Russia holds the strategic advantage in Ukraine, which has led “the Kiev regime” to resort to terrorism and forced a response from Moscow. Putin also reiterated his view that the U.S. provision of long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine would not change the military situation but would cause significant damage to bilateral relations between Moscow and Washington. It was reportedly Trump who suggested Budapest as the site for their next summit.
The International Criminal Court in The Hague has issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin on charges of ordering the illegal deportations of children from Ukraine’s occupied territories following Moscow’s full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022.
Hungarian authorities formally notified the United Nations secretary-general on June 2, 2025, that Hungary is withdrawing from the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding treaty. However, under Article 127 of the Rome Statute, Hungary’s withdrawal will only take legal effect one year after notification — specifically on June 2, 2026. Until that date, Hungary remains a full member and is still bound by all ICC obligations, including cooperation with arrest warrants and investigations.
Hungary previously violated its ICC obligations in April 2025 by declining to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu despite an ICC arrest warrant for charges of war crimes and genocide. Prime Minister Viktor Orban welcomed the Israeli leader with full military honors in Budapest.