Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed his willingness to participate in the upcoming summit between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, if invited.
In statements to reporters published Monday (October 20, 2025), Zelenskyy said, "If I am invited to Budapest, if it is an invitation in the form of the three of us meeting, or... President Trump meeting with Putin and President Trump meeting with me, then in one form or another, we will agree."
In an interview broadcast Sunday on NBC, the Ukrainian president urged Trump to exert more pressure on Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine, noting that the Russian president is "stronger than Hamas."
The interview aired after Zelenskyy returned from a trip to Washington during which he failed to secure long-range Tomahawk missiles.
Zelenskyy met with Trump at the White House after demanding Tomahawk missiles for weeks, hoping to capitalize on the US president's growing frustration with Putin after the Alaska summit failed to achieve a breakthrough on ending the war in Ukraine.
However, the Ukrainian president returned empty-handed, at a time when Trump was seeking a new diplomatic breakthrough following last week's ceasefire agreement in Gaza.
"If invited," Zelensky is ready to participate in the Trump-Putin summit.
