Washington DC [US], October 20 : White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday hit back at a reporter, calling him a "left wing hack" and that he is not a journalist.
US President Donald Trump has reportedly announced that he will soon meet with Putin to discuss an end to the war in Ukraine. When the reporter texted White House Press Secretary who chose the location for the meeting, Leavitt replied, "Your mom did."
Leavitt shared a screenshot of her exchange with the journalist, alleging that his messages resembled an "anti-US President Donald Trump diary."
In a post on X, she said, "For context, S.V. Date of the Huffington Post is not a journalist interested in the facts. He is a left-wing hack who has consistently attacked President Trump for years and constantly bombards my phone with Democrat talking points. Just take a look at SV Date's feed, it reads like an anti-Trump personal diary. Here is my full response to his "inquiry." Activists who masquerade as real reporters do a disservice to the profession."
https://x.com/PressSec/status/1980288128867877125
No date has been finalised for the summit, which is expected to be held in the Hungarian capital in the coming weeks, Al Jazeera reported.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is willing to join the summit arranged between United States President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, Al Jazeera reported.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Zelenskyy said he would take part if he were invited. The Ukrainian president is wary of the setting for the meeting in Budapest, given Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's warm relations with Moscow and antagonistic approach to Kyiv, as per Al Jazeera.
"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 said.
Trump has continued to push for an end to the war that began in February 2022 when Russia invaded invaded Ukraine.
Zelenskyy, however, warned against a repeat of "Budapest scenario" - a reference to the 1994 Budapest Memorandum - in which Moscow and other powers provided security assurances to Ukraine and other former Soviet states in exchange for their giving up the nuclear arsenals they inherited from Soviet times, Al Jazeera reported.
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