KYIV – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he would be ready to join Russian President Vladimir Putin and US counterpart Donald Trump at their summit in Hungary if he is invited.
Trump and Putin said they would meet in the Hungarian capital, possibly in a matter of weeks, as the US leader continues to try to broker a peace deal to end the three-and-a-half-year war, triggered by Russia’s 2022 invasion.
“If I am invited to Budapest — if it is an invitation in a format where we meet as three or, as it’s called, shuttle diplomacy, President Trump meets with Putin and President Trump meets with me — then in one format or another, we will agree,” Zelenskyy told reporters in remarks released on Monday.
The Ukrainian president criticized the choice of Hungary, which has a terse relationship with Kyiv and is seen as the most Kremlin-sympathetic member of the European Union.
“I do not believe that a prime minister who blocks Ukraine everywhere can do anything positive for Ukrainians or even provide a balanced contribution,” Zelenskyy said, referring to Hungarian leader Viktor Orban.
Kyiv has said it is ready to join a three-way meeting between Zelenskyy, Putin and Trump in a number of neutral countries, including Turkey, Switzerland and the Vatican.
in 1994, Moscow signed a memorandum in Budapest aimed at ensuring security for Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan in exchange for them giving up numerous nuclear weapons left from the Soviet era.
“Another ‘Budapest’ scenario wouldn’t be positive either,” Zelenskyy said.
Trump has been aiming for a speedy end to the years-long conflict in Ukraine since he returned to White House earlier this year, pushing for a series of direct talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials and hosting Putin for a summit in Alaska — diplomatic efforts that have ultimately not lead to any breakthrough.
Meanwhile, at a Polish military school in Legnica, Poland, teenagers in military-style uniforms crowded around a 15-year-old classmate, pushing him to “search for Russians,” as he hunted for targets on a drone simulator.
For them it was just a game — but for Poland, the threat is seen as very real.
Warsaw and its NATO allies scrambled fighter jets last month when they had detected around 20 drones they said were piloted by Russia, flying through Poland’s airspace. A few were shot down and Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned his country was closer to conflict than at any point since World War II.
It was a stark example of NATO’s vulnerability to a possible drone attack, prompting many countries to assess their warfare capacities against the aerial devices.
Just days earlier, a military school in Poland’s western town of Legnica had launched the country’s first drone course, teaching teenagers how to build and fly the devices.
“Looking at Ukraine, I see that these drones are actually very important,” Bartosz Ladocha, a 15-year-old student enrolled in the program, told AFP.
Both Russia and Ukraine have used drones widely since Moscow invaded in 2022, and are locked in a technological arms race to gain an edge.
“Drones are new, and I thought it was a promising profession, which is why I want to go into it,” said Ladocha.
Wearing a combat uniform with a Polish flag on his sleeve, he said he had “always wanted to join the army.”
Ladocha and his 17 classmates follow a program overseen by the Polish defense ministry.
Poland — which will spend 4.8 percent of GDP on defense next year, one of the highest levels in NATO — has created a special drone force and will buy $54 million worth of drones this year.
At the school in Legnica, founder and headmaster colonel Tomasz Zachariasz told AFP his “students are becoming pioneers” of drone expertise.
The morning after the flurry of drones rattled Poland, students “immediately came” to ask if the airspace violation matched scenarios talked about in class, he said.
Their training focuses not just on how to use drones, but also how their role in military strategy.
Though they not obligated to join the army once they graduate from the class, many are set on a military career — some, like Tomasz Cieslak, to their parents’ initial dismay.
“At first, they were devastated that I was thinking about joining the army,” Cieslak, 15, said.
“They suggested various civilian schools. Still, I decided to choose a military school.”
Cieslak became interested in drones through his father who used them for work. When he was around 12, he started flying small, “10-gram drones” indoors, before gradually taking to larger devices.
He also started studying Poland’s turbulent history, learning about the heavy territorial and human losses suffered in World War II, when the country was invaded by both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
“I began to respect more what Poles did to free Poland from captivity. It really got to me, and I thought that I wanted to be like them and defend my homeland,” Cieslak told AFP.
