The leaders of the US and Russia discussed tensions in Europe in their first conversation since the Alaska summit in August
Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump spoke over the phone on Thursday amid renewed tensions over potential deliveries of American Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine and stalled peace talks.
Trump described the conversation as “very productive” and announced plans for a summit with Putin in Hungary’s capital, Budapest.
Putin’s top aide, Yury Ushakov, later released a statement summarizing the phone call.
Frank conversation
The conversation, which lasted nearly two and a half hours, was “very substantive and at the same time extremely frank,” Ushakov said. He added that Putin congratulated Trump on his “successful” efforts to mediate a ceasefire in Gaza.
Ukraine in the spotlight
Putin emphasized that Moscow seeks “a peaceful political-diplomatic resolution” of the conflict. At the same time, he noted that Russian troops held “strategic initiative” across all sections of the front line, according to Ushakov, and that Moscow was “responding appropriately” to Ukrainian strikes on civilian targets.
Although the potential delivery of Tomahawks would “not change the situation on the battlefield,” it would “severely undermine the prospects of a peaceful settlement,” as well as bilateral relations, Putin said, according to Ushakov. The cruise missiles have a range of up to 2,500 km (1,550 miles) and could reach Moscow and other cities deep inside Russia.
Next face-to-face meeting
Ushakov said the sides would immediately begin arranging the next Putin-Trump summit, with Budapest as a possible location. Preparations would include a phone call between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban wrote on X Thursday that he had also spoken to Trump and that preparations for the summit were underway.
Although the rare in-person Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska in August did not produce major breakthroughs, the leaders at the time described it as an important step toward peace between Russia and Ukraine.
