Trump to hold talks with Putin in Budapest – DW – 10/17/2025

Fresh off the Gaza ceasefire deal, US President Donald Trump has openly mused about supplying Ukraine with long-range missiles, shifting his stance toward Russia’s Vladimir Putin from diplomacy to pressure.

US President Donald Trump has put forward a rough timeframe for his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest.

“I’ll be meeting him probably over the next two weeks,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

Trump also addressed the Ukrainian request for US-made Tomahawk missiles, seemingly cooling off on providing them after the phone call with Putin.

He warned the United States could not “deplete” its own stock of the missiles, adding that when he addressed the issue with Putin, he “didn’t like the idea.”

The Ukrainian delegation in Washington did not know about plans for a summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, sources told DW’s US correspondent Misha Komadovsky.

Trump announced the planned summit after a phone call with Putin earlier on Thursday.

He said it was due to be held in Budapest, Hungary, but did not disclose the location.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was planning on building on the momentum currently in place since a ceasefire agreement in Gaza was reached, ahead of his meeting with US President Donald Trump on Friday.

“We expect that the momentum of curbing terror and war that succeeded in the Middle East will help to end Russia’s war against Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said on X. “Putin is certainly no braver than Hamas or any other terrorist.”

The Ukrainian president stressed that there “must be no alternative but peace and reliably guaranteed security.”

Zelenskyy is reportedly due to discuss Kyiv’s request for US-made Tomahawk missiles in his meeting with Trump.

On Thursday, following a phone call between Trump and Putin, the Kremlin said the Russian leader warned against supplying Ukraine with the missiles.

“We can already see that Moscow is rushing to resume dialogue as soon as it hears about Tomahawks,” Zelenskyy said, in seeming reference to a Trump-Putin summit announced earlier by the US president.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy touched down in Washington DC on Thursday, as he prepares for an Oval Office meeting with US President Donald Trump on Friday.

In a post on X, Zelenskyy said he was meeting representatives of defense companies to discuss “additional supplies of air defense systems.” The Ukrainian president also said he plans to meet representatives of US energy companies.

“Now, as Russia is betting on terror against our energy sector and carrying out daily strikes, we are working to ensure Ukraine’s resilience,” Zelenskyy said.

The Ukrainian president posted a video showing him arriving at the airport.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he spoke on the phone with US President Donald Trump after Trump announced he was meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Hungarian capital Budapest.

“Preparations for the USA-Russia peace summit are underway,” Orban said in a post on X. “Hungary is the island of PEACE!”

The summit’s date has yet to be revealed.

Orban has long been Putin’s greatest ally in Europe, a rare outlieramong the otherwise united bloc.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin warned US President Donald Trump against giving in to Ukraine’s request for Tomahawk cruise missiles, the Kremlin said.

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters on Thursday that Putin told the US president that giving Ukraine Tomahawk missiles would harm US-Russia ties and the peace process.

Ushakov said that the phone call took place at Russia’s initiative.

“It was a highly substantive conversation, and at the same time, it was extremely frank and trustful,” the AFP news agency quoted him as saying.

On the Trump-Putin summit, the Kremlin aide said top diplomats Marco Rubio and Sergei Lavrov will first speak on the phone in the coming days, adding that the work to pave the way for the summit would begin “immediately.”

The question onKyiv’s request for American-made Tomahawk cruise missilesis watched closely since Moscow has intensified strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure before winter.

A senior Ukrainian official told the French AFP news agency that in Zelenskyy’s Friday meeting with Trump  “the main topic of discussion is Tomahawks.”

Last weekend, Trump did warn he would raise the issue first with Vladimir Putin, though he made no reference to it in his recap of Thursday’s phone call. Putin warned that the US supplying Ukraine with the missiles would amount to a “whole new level of escalation.”

“I might talk to him, I might say, ‘Look, if this war is not going to get settled, I’m going to send them Tomahawks.’ I may say that,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One when he was on his way to the Middle East last week.

The missiles have a range of some 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers), which would allow Ukraine to strike deep into Russia. “The Tomahawk is [an] incredible weapon, very offensive weapon, and honestly, Russia does not need that,” Trump had said.

US President Trump said he would discuss his phone call with Putin with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is due in the Oval Office on Friday.

“President Zelenskyy and I will be meeting tomorrow, in the Oval Office, where we will discuss my conversation with President Putin, and much more,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I believe great progress was made with today’s telephone conversation.”

Zelenskyy is expected to seek approval for the purchase of long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles during his visit.

Russia has cautioned the US administration against supplying Ukraine with the Tomahawks.

US President Trump also said US and Russian high-level advisors will be meeting next week, also in his Truth Social post summing up the phone call with Putin.

The initial meetings will be led by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump said, adding that the location has yet to be determined.

“I actually believe that the Success in the Middle East will help in our negotiation in attaining an end to the War with Russia/Ukraine,” Trump wrote, in reference to the   US- brokered ceasefire framework to end the war in Gaza.

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was set to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Budapest, Hungary, without disclosing any specific information regarding a date for that meeting.

“I have just concluded my telephone conversation with President Vladimir Putin, of Russia, and it was a very productive one,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform, hours after announcing the start of the phone call.

“President Putin and I will then meet in an agreed upon location, Budapest, Hungary, to see if we can bring this “inglorious” War, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end,” he wrote.

US President Trump has concluded a call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and announced that the two leaders are set to meet in Budapest on a yet-to-be-disclosed date.

Later this evening, Trump is also expected to make a big announcement. It’s not clear whether that will involve his efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

The call with Putin comes ahead of a scheduled visit to Washington by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday.

This blog brings you the latest regarding the war in Ukraine and the Trump administration’s efforts to see an end to it.