US President Donald Trump said negotiations to finish the war in Ukraine will begin ‘immediately’ after holding a ‘lengthy and highly productive’ phone call with Vladimir Putin on Wednesday evening.
The decision, believed to be the primary conversation between the 2 leaders since Trump returned to office in January, got here as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prepares to enter its fourth yr.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said he had also spoken with Trump and looked forward to making a ‘lasting, reliable peace’.
The Kremlin reports that Trump and Putin spoke for nearly 90 minutes, and that each men assumed a conciliatory tone following a protracted period of silence between the White House and Moscow.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to an online
browser that
supports HTML5
video
Recapping the meeting in a post on Truth Social, Trump said: ‘We discussed Ukraine, the Middle East, Energy, Artificial Intelligence, the facility of the Dollar, and various other subjects.’
‘We agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting one another’s Nations. We’ve also agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately, and we are going to begin by calling President Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, to tell him of the conversation, something which I will probably be doing at once.’
He added: ‘It’s time to stop this ridiculous War, where there was massive, and totally unnecessary, DEATH and DESTRUCTION. God bless the people of Russia and Ukraine!’
Trump didn’t set a date for a face-to-face meeting with Putin, but said the pair will meet in Saudi Arabia sooner or later within the near future. Each leaders also invited one another to their respective capitals.
As American officials prepare to travel to Europe this week, a clearer picture of how the war may conclude is beginning to take shape. Speaking in Brussels, US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said it’s unrealistic to expect Ukraine to affix NATO, and that following the resolution of the conflict the US will now not prioritise European security and can as an alternative shift its attention towards securing internal borders and coping with China.
Trump also told reporters on the White House that a return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders was inconceivable, but that ‘a few of that land will come back.’
The news will likely be difficult for Zelensky, who had previously insisted that there ‘ will be no talks on Ukraine without Ukraine’.
But the brand new administration has made it clear that the US and Russia will take the lead in peace negotiations, with Ukraine relegated to a junior partner.
Trump said he has not yet committed to going to Ukraine, and when asked whether Zelensky can be in attendance when he meets with Putin in Saudi Arabia, said it was unlikely the Ukrainian president can be invited.
‘Probably we’ll have a primary meeting after which we’ll see what we will do in regards to the second meeting,’ he told reporters. ‘I might take into consideration going, I’d give it some thought, no problem.’
The last US president to go to Russia was Barack Obama in 2013, when he attended a G20 summit, while Putin last visited the US in 2015 to attend talks on the United Nations.
Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden refused to satisfy Putin during his time in office after branding the Russian president a war criminal.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s powerful Security Council, said on Thursday that the decision between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump showed that any Western hopes of defeating Russia would never be achieved.
‘There will not be and can’t be a essential country and a senior ruler of the planet,’ Medvedev said. ‘This lesson needs to be learned by the smug American elites.’
‘It’s inconceivable to bring us to our knees. And the earlier our opponents realise this, the higher,’ he added.
UK defence secretary John Healey echoed Zelensky’s remarks on Thursday morning and said ‘There will be no negotiation about Ukraine without Ukraine.’
Responding to Trump’s comments, about Ukraine, Healey said it’s Nato’s job to ‘put Ukraine within the strongest possible position for any talks’.
‘We wish to see durable peace and no return to conflict and aggression,’ he added. ‘Let’s not forget Russia stays a threat well beyond Ukraine.’
Nato secretary Mark Rutte said there was a ‘clear convergence’ amongst allies to see peace in Ukraine ‘earlier than later’ and that Russia must not be allowed to ‘capture a square kilometre, a square mile of Ukraine in the longer term.’
Get in contact with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
MORE: Elon Musk’s power play: why truth matters in an age of disinformation
MORE: Grimes blasts Elon Musk for parading their son, 4, around a Trump press conference
MORE: Secret assassination files found with recent claims about who shot JFK
