Trump Hints at Breakthrough After “Very Productive” Call with Putin

By Staff, Agencies

US President Donald Trump said his latest phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin could mark a turning point toward a peace settlement in the Ukraine conflict.

Speaking at a press briefing on Thursday, Trump described the two-and-a-half-hour call as “very productive,” suggesting that it could pave the way for a resolution. “I thought it was a very good phone call, very productive… And we think we’re going to get [the conflict] stopped,” he told reporters. “This may be such a productive call that we’re going to end up… we want to get peace.”

The call came amid renewed tensions between Washington and Moscow over potential US deliveries of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine and the ongoing deadlock in peace negotiations.

Earlier, Trump wrote on Truth Social that “great progress was made” during the conversation and revealed that he and Putin had agreed to hold a bilateral summit in Budapest, Hungary. He said the meeting would likely take place within two weeks, following preparatory discussions between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as well as Trump’s scheduled talks with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky in Washington on Friday.

The last Putin-Trump summit, held in Anchorage, Alaska, in August, did not yield a breakthrough, but Trump said it had “set the stage” for a broader peace process.

Commenting on reports that the US might supply Tomahawk missiles to Kiev, Trump neither confirmed nor denied the plans, but cautioned that while the US has “a lot of them,” it also needs the missiles for its own defense and “can’t deplete” its stockpile.

According to Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov, Putin warned during the call that sending Tomahawks to Ukraine would not change the situation on the battlefield but could “severely undermine the prospects of a peaceful settlement” and further strain Russia-US relations.

Ushakov added that Putin reaffirmed Moscow’s commitment to “a peaceful political-diplomatic resolution” and described the discussion as “very substantive and extremely frank.” He confirmed that preparations for the next Putin-Trump summit were already underway, with Budapest emerging as the most likely venue.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban later wrote on X that he had also spoken with Trump and confirmed that logistical arrangements for the summit were in progress.