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With significant questions remaining about the details, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has indicated that he would be open to joining a proposed summit with Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Hungary to discuss the war in Ukraine, but only if formally invited.
After the US and Russia publicized their plans for talks in Budapest, Zelensky outlined his conditional acceptance to reporters, saying: "If it is an invitation in a format where we meet as three or, as it's called, shuttle diplomacy... then in one format or another, we will agree.”
Meanwhile, media reports suggest his White House meeting with Trump on Friday descended into a "shouting match" - with the US side urging Ukraine to accept Russia's terms to end the war.
Zelensky was guarded during his first press briefing since the talks, but still his comments made clear that there were large areas of disagreement between the two sides.
He described the meeting as frank, and said he had told Trump that his main aim was just peace, not a quick peace.
He criticised Hungary as the location of the prospective Trump-Putin talks, saying the country's Prime Minister Viktor Orban could not do "anything positive for Ukrainians or even provide a balanced contribution".
Zelensky had hoped to secure US Tomahawk missiles to strike deep into Russia at the talks, but appeared to walk away empty-handed as Trump struck a non-committal tone on the matter. Media reports on Monday suggested the atmosphere at the US and Ukrainian leaders' meeting had been far more acrimonious than previously understood.
The Financial Times reported that Trump had warned Zelensky that Putin would "destroy" Ukraine if he did not agree to its terms, citing sources familiar with the conversation.
The US side was said to have echoed Russian talking points at the "volatile" meeting. It also reported that Trump tossed aside maps of the front line in Ukraine and insisted Zelensky surrender the entire eastern Donbas region to Putin.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It currently controls around a fifth of Ukrainian territory, including most - but not all - of the Donbas.
The US president has been pressuring Nato nations, as well as China and India, to stop purchasing Russian oil in a bid to create further economic pressure on Moscow to end the conflict.
He also previously threatened Russia with tougher sanctions if Putin did not meet deadlines to make progress in ending the war, though he did not follow through with those threats.
