By Burc Eruygur
ISTANBUL (AA) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday told his US counterpart Donald Trump in a phone call that potential long-range Tomahawk cruise missile deliveries to Ukraine will damage ties between Moscow and Washington.
“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 settlement (in Ukraine),” Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov told journalists in a briefing.
Noting that the nearly two-and-a-half-hour conversation was “very substantive, yet also extremely frank and confidential,” Ushakov said that particular emphasis was placed on the Ukraine war during the talks, in which Putin gave Trump a “detailed assessment of the current situation.”
Ushakov said the US was told that Moscow has “complete strategic initiative” along the front line in Ukraine.
“One of the American president's key points was that ending the conflict in Ukraine would open up enormous —he emphasized it — prospects for developing economic cooperation between the United States and Russia,” Ushakov went on to say.
He also said the two presidents discussed the possibility of holding another face-to-face meeting, and agreed that the representatives of both sides will immediately begin preparing for a summit, with the Hungarian capital Budapest as a potential venue.