Kremlin says Rubio and Lavrov to speak in coming days to prepare Putin-Trump summit

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MOSCOW (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will speak in the coming days to prepare a new summit between presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, a Kremlin aide said on Thursday.

The official, Yuri Ushakov, said the timing of the summit would depend on how the preparatory work progressed.

Ushakov made the remarks during a briefing for reporters on a phone call between Putin and Trump, their eighth this year, which he said had taken place at Moscow’s initiative.

He said Trump had proposed Budapest as a summit venue and that Putin had immediately agreed.

Ushakov’s readout made clear that Putin had reiterated to Trump his longstanding position on the state of the war in Ukraine, saying Russian troops had the strategic initiative along the whole front line.

He said the two had also discussed the possible supply of U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine, which President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has requested.

“Vladimir Putin reiterated his thesis that Tomahawk missiles will not change the situation on the battlefield, but will cause significant damage to relations between our countries, not to mention the prospects for a peaceful resolution,” Ushakov told reporters.

He said Trump told Putin he would take into account what the Russian leader had said on the call when he meets Zelenskiy in Washington on Friday.

Ushakov said Trump had spoken of enormous potential for economic cooperation between the United States and Russia once the war in Ukraine had ended.

(Reporting by Anastasia Lyrchikova; writing by Mark TrevelyanEditing by Andrew Osborn)