Overview

• The two leaders held their eighth call of the year for about two and a half hours and agreed to organize a new summit, with Budapest proposed by President Trump and backed by President Putin.
• Senior diplomatic groundwork will start with a near‑term phone conversation between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
• The discussion addressed possible U.S. transfers of Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine as Putin warned of serious damage to bilateral ties and Trump later said the missiles are needed by the United States.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Washington for an Oct. 17 meeting with Trump as Axios and Newsweek reported his team was surprised by the Trump–Putin summit announcement and questioned prospects for Tomahawk deliveries.
• Putin told Trump that Russian forces hold the strategic initiative on the front, Trump said he may meet Putin and Zelensky separately, and the White House declined to say whether a three‑way session was discussed.