The White House Russian Foreign Ministry
Lavrov and Rubio are expected to meet in Budapest on Oct. 30, an anonymous German official told the Financial Times.
They added that Hungary’s pro-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was expected to outline plans ahead of the summit, which could include a meeting between Trump and EU leaders. The plans have not yet been confirmed.
EU leaders are set to close ranks in support of Ukraine at a Brussels summit on Thursday, followed the next day by a “coalition of the willing” meeting of European leaders in London to discuss the next steps to help Kyiv.
According to FT, EU leaders also plan to agree on loaning 140 billion euros ($162.5 billion) from frozen Russian assets to Ukraine and approve new Russia sanctions during the Brussels summit.
On Tuesday, leaders including Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, threw their support behind Trump’s peace effort while reaffirming their red lines.
“We remain committed to the principle that international borders must not be changed by force,” the leaders, including EU chiefs Antonio Costa and Ursula von Der Leyen, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, as well as those of Italy, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Poland, said in a joint statement.
Macron said separately that Ukraine’s Western allies were ready to provide security guarantees in the event of a ceasefire, but that Kyiv alone would decide on any territorial negotiations.
Russia on Tuesday said that there was “no precise timeframe” for a summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump on Ukraine, dousing hopes for a swift preparatory meeting to finalize the talks.
“No precise timeframe was initially set here,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, including from AFP, at a briefing on Tuesday.
Asked if the summit could be postponed, Peskov said: “It’s impossible to postpone something that hasn’t been set in stone, … Preparation is needed, serious preparation.”
