‘I am speaking to President Putin now,’ Trump says

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the White House

Image source, Bernd Debusmann Jr/BBC News

After a relatively quiet morning here at the White House, it’s suddenly buzzing with activity after Trump’s post that he’s on a call with Vladimir Putin.

For days now, Trump has been teasing that he may send Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine. These missiles have an extremely long range of approximately over 1,000 miles (1600km), which could, potentially, give Kyiv additional ability to strike deep into Russia and fundamentally alter the war.

Over the last several weeks, there’s been a notable shift in tone from the White House regarding Ukraine. Trump has said he’s “disappointed” in Putin, and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth vowed that Moscow could face “costs” for continuing the war.

And at the UN General Assembly in September, Trump said that he believes that Russia is a “paper tiger” and that Ukraine could ultimately take back the territory it has so far lost – an abrupt U-turn in US policy that caught many by surprise.

We’re still waiting to hear how the conversation with Putin went, and what message Trump conveyed to his Russian counterpart.

The next update is likely to come from Trump’s Truth Social account again.