US President Donald Trump has said he had a “lengthy and highly productive” phone call with Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in which the leaders agreed to begin negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he and the Russian president had “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately” and invited each other to visit their respective capitals.
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Later, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had also spoken with Trump about a “lasting, reliable peace”.
The calls with both warring sides came as both Trump and his defence secretary said it was unlikely Ukraine would join Nato, which will come as a bitter disappointment to Kyiv.
Zelensky said he would meet Vice-President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a defence summit on Ukraine which is taking place in Munich on Friday.
Trump wrote on social media: “It is time to stop this ridiculous War, where there has been massive, and totally unnecessary, DEATH and DESTRUCTION. God bless the people of Russia and Ukraine!”
He did not set a date for a face-to-face meeting with Putin, but later told reporters at the White House: “We’ll meet in Saudi Arabia.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin supported Trump’s idea that the time had come to work together.
The phone call between Putin and Trump lasted nearly an hour and a half, during which the Russian president extended an invitation to visit Moscow, Peskov said.
Trump also told reporters at the White House that it was unlikely Ukraine would return to its pre-2014 borders, but in response to a question from the BBC said “some of that land will come back”.
The president said he agreed with his defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, who told a Nato summit earlier on Thursday that there was no likelihood of Ukraine joining the military alliance.
“I think that’s probably true,” Trump said.
