What warning did the Russian leader give about Tomahawk missiles. The announcement of the Kremlin after the Putin-Trump conversation
The head of American diplomacy, Marco Rubio, and the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, will talk in the coming days to prepare the new summit between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, a Kremlin adviser announced on Thursday, after the telephone conversation between the two leaders, according to Reuters.
Kremlin official Yuri Ushakov said the date of the summit, not specified by Trump, will depend on how preparations progress.
Ushakov made these statements during a press conference on the subject of the telephone conversation between Putin and Trump, the eighth this year, which, according to the Kremlin adviser, took place at the initiative of Moscow.
He also said that Trump proposed Budapest as the venue for the summit and that Putin immediately agreed.
Ushakov's statement made it clear that Putin reiterated to Trump his long-standing position on the state of the war in Ukraine, saying that Russian troops have the strategic initiative along the entire front line.
Ushakov also stated that the two leaders also discussed the possible delivery of Tomahawk cruise missiles from the United States to Ukraine, which President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been requesting intensively lately.
“Vladimir Putin reiterated his thesis that the Tomahawk missiles will not change the situation on the battlefield, but will cause significant damage to the relations between our countries, not to mention the damage to the prospects of a peaceful resolution” of the conflict, Ushakov also stated to reporters.
At the same time, Trump conveyed to Putin that he will take into account what the Russian leader said during this telephone conversation, when he meets with Zelenskiy in Washington, at the White House on Friday, according to the Kremlin adviser.
Last but not least, Ushakov said Trump talked about the enormous potential for economic cooperation between the United States and Russia once the war in Ukraine ends.
Trump announced “great progress”
US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that “great progress has been made” following the afternoon discussion with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and that he will have a meeting with him in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, at an unspecified date.
“I have decided that a meeting of our top advisers will take place next week. The first meetings will be led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with others to be named. The location is to be chosen. Then, President Putin and I will meet in an already agreed upon location, Budapest, Hungary, to see if we can end this 'shameful' war between Russia and Ukraine,” he wrote the American president, in a message published on his social network, Truth Social.
“President Zelensky and I will meet tomorrow in the Oval Office, where we will discuss my conversation with President Putin and much more. I believe that great progress was made following the telephone conversation today,” the White House leader also wrote, without giving details about the content of the discussion, which he described as “very productive.”
The Trump-Putin conversation, also described in a White House statement as “good and productive,” took place on the eve of a visit to Washington on Friday by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is seeking increased military support from Trump in the war with Russia, particularly long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles, notes AFP.
The White House announced, through spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt, quoted by CNN, that the telephone conversation between the two heads of state lasted “more than two hours”. More details will be provided later, Leavitt said. “I just spoke with the president, the secretary of state and the vice president, and it was a very good and productive conversation. It lasted more than two hours,” she told reporters.
Previously, the Kremlin leader had warned the US that the transfer of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine would irreparably damage Russian-American relations and noted that these missiles requested by Kiev to strike deep into Russian territory cannot be operated by the Ukrainian army without American assistance.
The US president recently suggested the possibility of supplying Ukraine with Tomahawk cruise missiles, if Russia does not radically change its position in the negotiations. The subject of Tomahawk missiles was not included in the statement of the American leader regarding the telephone conversation with Putin, CNN notes.
Zelenskiy earlier told a group of journalists in Kiev that the main topics of his discussion with Trump at the White House on Friday would include “air defense and our possibilities to put pressure on Russia with long-range missiles.”
