U.S. President Donald Trump posted on social media on October 16 that he had a long conversation with Russian President Putin on the same day, mainly discussing issues such as ending the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the subsequent Russian-U.S. trade.

Trump wrote that his phone call with Putin was "productive" and "made great progress." The two sides agreed to hold a high-level US-Russia meeting next week. The U.S. delegation will be led by Secretary of State Rubio, and the meeting venue has yet to be determined. After the high-level meeting, he and Putin will meet in Budapest to discuss how to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Trump did not mention the date of the meeting between U.S. and Russian leaders.

Russian Assistant President Ushakov confirmed on the 16th that Trump proposed to hold a meeting of US-Russian leaders in Budapest, and Putin expressed his support.

White House spokeswoman Levitt told reporters on Monday that Trump and Putin had talked for more than two hours, saying Trump still believed it was ¡°possible¡± for Putin and Ukrainian President Zelensky to negotiate directly to end the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, ¡°I think the president (Trump) didn¡¯t close the door at all.¡±

However, in response to a question about whether Putin pledged to hold a tripartite meeting of U.S.-Russia-Ukraine leaders, Levitt simply said that Putin pledged to sit down and talk to Trump.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban tweeted on social media that day confirming that Trump and Putin planned to meet in Budapest and said "we are ready."

Trump is scheduled to meet Zelensky at the White House on the 17th. According to US media reports, Zelensky said that the main topics of his meeting with Trump will be to strengthen Ukraine's air defense and long-range strike capabilities and maintain pressure on Russia.

On August 15, Trump and Putin held the first face-to-face meeting between U.S. and Russian leaders in Anchorage, Alaska, for more than four years, but no agreement was reached. The Russian-Ukrainian ceasefire talks have so far fallen into a stalemate. In late September, Trump announced that he believes that Ukraine, with the support of the EU and NATO, hopes to "win back all territory."

Recently, Trump has repeatedly said that he is considering providing Ukraine with a range of "tacks" cruise missiles through NATO European member states that can cover the Russian capital Moscow. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said on 15th this month that if the US decided to provide Ukraine with "tacks" missiles, it would cause huge damage to Russian-US relations.