Image source, Reuters

US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke on the phone for two hours today, two months after their summit in Anchorage, Alaska.

We don't know everything they discussed, but the two decided they will meet in person again. Here's what we found out:

• The two leaders plan to meet in Budapest, Hungary
• A date is unknown, but Trump said the meeting will take place "within two weeks or so, pretty quick"
• "High-level" advisers from both sides will meet next week, he said
• The aim of the meeting is to "bring this 'inglorious' War, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end", Trump wrote on Truth Social
• Hungary's Prime Minister says preparations for the summit are already in the works
• The call came on the eve of Trump's White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and Trump says the two will discuss his conversation with Putin
• Putin's special envoy says the call was "positive and productive"

We will be ending our live coverage here soon, but you can stay up to date with our coverage on this story here, and we'll be back to bring you all the updates from Zelensky's visit to the White House on Friday.

Image source, Reuters

Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor

Image source, Getty Images

Vladimir Putin has not set foot in a European Union capital for years, and certainly not since he embarked on Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

One big reason is that he's facing an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for war crimes. However, Hungary is withdrawing from the ICC so the government will argue that the warrant has no effect in Budapest.

Putin should feel that he's among friends in Budapest as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is an ally and visited him in Moscow last year, to the annoyance of his European Union partners. It's a big win for Orban too as he can enjoy the prestige of hosting both Putin and Trump.

Orban needs a boost. He's been in office since 2010 but faces critical elections next spring when polls suggest he could lose.

He is also a political ally of Trump's and saw him earlier this week at the Egyptian summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, where the Gaza ceasefire was signed.

Image source, Pool/Getty Images

John Sudworth
Reporting from Kyiv

Image source, AP

President Zelensky, having now landed in Washington, makes only terse reference to the surprise two-and-a-half-hour phone call between the US and Russian presidents that took place while his plane was in the air.

Talk of US Tomahawk missiles being supplied to Ukraine, he said, had Moscow "rushing" to renew dialogue.

But it’s hard to imagine there isn’t a sense of some deflation. Putin has stolen a march on the Ukrainian leader’s big moment at a time when many thought Washington was running out of patience with Russia.

Zelensky is still talking up his hope that Trump's success "curbing terror and war" in the Middle East can now carry forward to Ukraine. How much of that is sincere and how much is flattery – the new language of diplomacy in Washington – is hard to say.

At the very least, he'd hoped that the US president might be willing to lean on Putin in the same way he was seen to lean on the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Instead, though, Trump has rewarded the Russian president with another summit.

Image source, AP

Speaking to reporter at the White House, Trump said that his meeting with Putin is expected to take place "within two weeks or so, pretty quick".

He adds that the top diplomats from the US and Russia will determine where and when it will take place.

"I thought it was a very good phone call. Very productive," Trump says, about his call with Putin today.

He adds that he will meet President Zelensky tomorrow, and will update him on what was discussed with Putin.

"They don't get along well, those two," he says about Trump and Zelensky, adding that it could be "tough" to have them ever meet in person for diplomatic talks.

Trump goes on to suggest that he would hold "separate but equal" meetings with each leader.

"This is a terrible relationship the two of them have," he says.

Trump goes on to say that the discussion of Tomahawk missiles for Ukraine came up during the call with Putin.

"Tomahawks. We have a lot of them, but we need them. We can't deplete" US stockpiles, he says.

He also suggested that he joked about the US-produced missiles in his call with the Russian leader.

"I did actually say to him, 'Would you mind if I gave a couple of thousands of Tomahawks to your opposition?'. I did say that to him. I said it just like that. He didn't like that idea.

"You have to be a bit light-hearted sometimes."

Tom Bateman
US State Department correspondent

Image source, Reuters

Hungary as the location for the next Trump-Putin summit puts a sharp focus on those two leaders and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban increasingly rejecting established norms of international law.

Hungary is a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and a signatory to the Rome Statute, which established the court. The ICC indicted Putin in March 2023 on charges of war crimes related to the forced deportation of Ukrainian children.

Russia, which is not a party to the ICC, rejects the charges and says court's move is meaningless. Under its treaty agreement Hungary is still obliged to honour the ICC arrest warrant for Putin if he steps foot on its soil.

But officials for Orban have previously made clear they would not arrest Putin during any visit, and Hungary has since announced it will withdraw from the court, becoming effective next year.

The ICC has already initiated non-compliance proceedings against Hungary for its failure to arrest Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit in April this year. Netanyahu is wanted by the court for alleged war crimes relating to the war in Gaza, which he rejects, calling the court anti-Israel.

Trump-Putin meeting is a curveball for Zelenskypublished at 21:00 BST 16 October

21:00 BST 16 October

John Sudworth
Reporting from Kyiv

There can be little doubt that the Trump Putin call – made at Russia’s behest according to the Kremlin – will not be seen as a welcome development for President Zelensky's team.

Before setting off for Washington DC, senior administration officials were speaking optimistically about President Trump beginning to see the world their way.

The failure of the Alaska summit and the intensifying bombardment of Ukraine were – they'd understood – all causing Trump to lose patience with his “good friend” Vladimir Putin.

They’d even dared to hope that Friday's meeting might be the moment when they were finally given the green light for the supply of American long-range Tomahawk missiles allowing them to take the fight deeper into Russian territory.

Now, it will seem to many here, Putin is instead being rewarded with another summit.

Never mind the Tomahawks, this looks like a long range curveball.

Some more now from President Zelensky, who has just landed in Washington.

Moscow is "rushing" to renew dialogue "just upon hearing about Tomahawks" he says in a post on his Telegram account.

Looking ahead to his meeting with Trump tomorrow, Zelensky says that he hopes that the "momentum" to curb "terror and war" - which "worked well in the Middle East" will help end the war in Ukraine.

"Putin is certainly not braver than Hamas or any other terrorist" he says, adding that "the language of strength and justice" will work against Russia too.

• As a reminder, a focus of Zelensky's meeting with Trump tomorrow is his request for Tomahawk missiles from the US, which have a range of 2,500km and would put Moscow in reach of Ukraine.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has just landed in Washington, ahead of his meeting with US President Trump tomorrow.

"Already in Washington" he says in a post on social media, alongside a video of him disembarking his plane.

We'll bring you some more of his comments in just a moment.

Image source, Reuters

"I just got off the phone" with President Trump, says Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in a new post on X.

He says that "preparations for the USA-Russia peace summit are under way".

"Hungary is the island of PEACE!" he adds.

Freya Scott-Turner
Live reporter

If you're just joining us, US President Donald Trump says he's planning to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Hungary to discuss an end to the war in Ukraine.

It came following a 2.5 hour phone call between the pair that also canvassed trade and the supply of American weapons to Ukraine, according to the Kremlin.

There are still some unanswered questions, so here's what we do and don't know:

What we know

• Trump says plans are being made to meet Putin in Budapest, Hungary

• The phone call was initiated by Russia, lasted for over two hours, and Ukraine's request for Tomahawk missiles was discussed, according to the Kremlin
• Before any summit involving the two leaders, top diplomats from the US and Russia will meet next week, Trump said

What we don't know

• It's still unclear exactly when the Budapest meeting between Trump and Putin could take place
• The location of the pre-summit meeting between Russian and US officials is also unknown
• We don't know if any Ukrainian representatives will be invited to the planned Trump-Putin summit

Many questions remain unanswered at White Housepublished at 19:52 BST 16 October

19:52 BST 16 October

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House

Image source, Reuters

Just a short while ago, I wrapped up a short "gaggle" with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, in which she was peppered with questions on Trump's call with Putin.

Her responses, in large part, stuck to what Trump had written on Truth Social.

There are a number of questions that remain unanswered.

First among them is the issue of the Tomahawk missiles which Trump has repeatedly teased that he may send Ukraine.

For now, the White House has so far today kept quiet about the missiles, although the Kremlin says they were discussed in the call.

We have few details of the call aside from plans for a high-level meeting between US and Russian officials, talks on potential future trade and the possibility of a meeting between the two presidents in Budapest.

When asked whether Trump believes a future meeting between Zelensky and Putin is still feasible, Leavitt said only that she believes "it is possible".

She would not, however, be drawn into questions on what conditions Trump believes would need to be in place for that to happen.

While he may post before then, we're likely to hear more from Trump at 20:00 BST (15:00 ET), when journalists are invited into the Oval Office for an unrelated event that focuses on domestic policy.

The phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin took place at Russia's request, says a key Kremlin aide.

In a broadcast on Russian state media, Yuri Ushakov says that during the phone call, Putin told Trump that supplying Tomahawk cruise missiles would harm the peace process and damage Russia-US ties.

As a reminder, Tomahawk missiles have a range of 2,500 km (1,500 miles), which would put Moscow within reach of Ukraine.

According to Ushakov, Budapest was suggested as the meeting location by Trump, and Putin immediately agreed.

He also says US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov will speak by phone initially, and the two countries will quickly prepare for a summit.

Paul Kirby
Europe digital editor

Image source, @AndriyYermak/X

The fact that Trump is now talking about a meeting of "high-level" US and Russian advisers next week is intriguing, and comes off the back of a series of meetings in Washington DC involving high-level US and Ukrainian officials in the past couple of days.

With Zelensky due back in the Oval Office tomorrow, a Ukrainian team has already been laying the groundwork, led by the head of his presidential office Andriy Yermak.

The Ukrainians know this is an important moment after three and a half years of war and Yermak spoke today of "aligning key priorities and focus areas" and hoping for "concrete decisions tomorrow".

Joining Yermak in the US are Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, national security and defence council chief Rustem Umerov, Ambassador Olga Stefanishyna and Deputy Foreign Minister Serhiy Kyslytsya.

Yesterday, they met Trump's National Security Advisor Marco Rubio, and Yermak said they talked about Trump showing "the kind of vision" for Ukraine that he had for his peace deal in the Middle East. Today they met Trump's Ukraine envoy Gen Keith Kellogg.

No actual sign of movement despite phone callpublished at 19:00 BST 16 October

19:00 BST 16 October

Sarah Smith
North America editor

In his post on social media, Donald Trump said "great progress" had been made during this call, but he didn't outline any.

There's no actual sign of any movement, but they said that high level diplomats - including Secretary of State Marco Rubio - will meet next week and work together towards the idea of a summit between Putin and Trump in Budapest sometime in the the near future.

So, it sounds as though he is much more favourable and warm towards Vladimir Putin than he was before this call started, which may not be good news for Volodymyr Zelensky when the pair meet in Washington DC tomorrow.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has shared his reaction, after Trump announced he would meet Putin in Budapest.

"The planned meeting between the American and Russian presidents is great news for the peace-loving people of the world" Orbán says in a post on X.

"We are ready!" he adds.

We've just heard from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who says the call between Putin and Trump "lasted more than two hours".

Speaking to reporters in Washington, Leavitt echoed many of the things Trump said about the call in his Truth Social post, including that it was "good and productive" and that he feels "great progress" was made.

Discussions will continue when Zelensky visits the White House tomorrow, she says, adding that Trump "deserves great credit" for pursuing peace negotiations so soon after brokering the Gaza ceasefire.

Image source, Reuters

We can bring you some more comments from Putin's special envoy Kirill Dmitriev.

In a post on X, he says that the "UK and EU warmongers try very, very hard to derail peace prospects".

"But dialogue and peace and the US-Russia cooperation will prevail," he adds.

Russia has long sought to frame Ukraine and the West as the aggressors in the war since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.

Putin's special envoy Kirill Dmitriev says the call between Russia's President and Donald Trump was "positive and productive".

He also says the next steps were "clear", posting on X alongside an image of Donald Trump's Truth Social post.

We can bring you some more lines now from Donald Trump's post on Truth Social.

He says "high level advisors" from both countries will meet next week, led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. A location for that meeting is yet to be determined, he adds.

After that, he says, the two leaders will meet in Budapest, Hungary. He does not say when that meeting will take place.

He says he'll discuss his conversation with Putin when he meets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office tomorrow.

"I believe great progress was made with today’s telephone conversation," his post concludes.

Donald Trump has just posted on Truth Social following his phone call with Vladimir Putin.

He says the call was "good and productive", adding that "high level advisors" from both countries will meet next week.

"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 says.

We'll bring you more on this shortly.