US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have agreed to hold a summit in Budapest, Hungary, within two weeks following their productive phone call, which Trump claims could lead to a peace settlement in the Ukraine conflict. The two leaders reportedly discussed the stalled peace talks and the potential delivery of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, with Trump indicating that while the US has a surplus of the weapons, it needs them for its own security. During the conversation, Trump emphasized that the call was so productive that a peace deal could come soon, stating that they want to get peace. Earlier, Trump had written on Truth Social that great progress was made during the call and that he and Putin had agreed to hold a bilateral summit in Budapest. According to Putin’s foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov, the Russian president told Trump that sending Tomahawk missiles to Kiev would not alter the battlefield situation but could severely undermine the prospects of a peaceful settlement and harm Russian-US relations. Ushakov noted that Putin reaffirmed Moscow’s commitment to a peaceful political-diplomatic resolution and called the discussion very substantive and extremely frank. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has also confirmed preparations for the summit, with Budapest under consideration for the meeting.
Trump’s remarks come amid renewed US-Russia tensions over the potential delivery of American Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine. While Trump did not confirm or deny the plans, he stated that while the US has a lot of the missiles, it needs them for its own security and can’t deplete its arsenal. The previous Putin-Trump summit, held in Anchorage, Alaska, in August, yielded no breakthrough, but Trump said it had set the stage for a broader peace process. The two leaders have been in talks on resolving the Ukraine conflict, with the latest call seen as a significant step towards negotiations. The summit is expected to take place within two weeks, following discussions between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as well as Trump’s meeting with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky in Washington on Friday. This development could signal a shift in the ongoing conflict, potentially leading to a peaceful resolution and reducing the involvement of both nations in the war.