President Donald Trump has revealed that he has spoken with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and the two world leaders have agreed to “start negotiations immediately” on ending the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Trump said he and Putin discussed ways to end the war in Ukraine and improve relations between Russia and the United States moving forward.
In a Wednesday post on Truth Social, Trump announced:
“I just had a lengthy and highly productive phone call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia.
“[F]irst, as we both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine.”
Trump said he and Putin are going to meet in person as soon as possible to advance the peace deal.
Both agreed that efforts to start peace negotiations must begin “immediately.”
“President Putin even used my very strong Campaign motto of, ‘COMMON SENSE’,” Trump revealed.
“We both believe very strongly in it.
“We agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other’s Nations.
“We have also agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately.”
“Millions of people have died in a War that would not have happened if I were President, but it did happen, so it must end,” Trump added.
“No more lives should be lost!
“I want to thank President Putin for his time and effort with respect to this call, and for the release, yesterday, of Marc Fogel, a wonderful man that I personally greeted last night at the White House.
“I believe this effort will lead to a successful conclusion, hopefully soon!”
Following his conversation with Putin, Trump said he is reaching out to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to inform him of the progress.
“I have asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of the CIA John Ratcliffe, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, and Ambassador and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, to lead the negotiations which, I feel strongly, will be successful,” Trump wrote.
Trump and Putin spoke for nearly an hour and a half and agreed to meet, the Kremlin said in its readout of the call.
It was Putin’s first known direct contact with a U.S. president since February 2022.
“President Putin…agreed with Trump that a long-term settlement could be reached through peaceful negotiations,” the Kremlin said.
The call followed a prisoner swap that resulted in Russia releasing American schoolteacher Marc Fogel, of Pennsylvania, after more than three years of detention.
The call between Trump and Putin took place as the administration announced that American taxpayers would no longer front the lion’s share of aid to Ukraine.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that Washington will “no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship” with its allies.
Hegseth added that “Europe must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and non-lethal aid to Ukraine.”
The Pentagon chief stressed that the United States is no longer “primarily focused” on Europe.
He said that the old continent would have to fund most of Ukraine’s defense itself.
Hegseth added that the United States would not deploy troops to Ukraine to uphold any peace deal with Russia.
The deployment of U.S. troops is one of the key security guarantees requested by Zelensky.
Hegseth also said that it was implausible for Ukraine to expect to return to a pre-war state.
The Defense Department assesses that any peace process “must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective.”
“The United States remains committed to the NATO alliance and to the defense partnership with Europe, full stop,” he said.
“But the United States will no longer tolerate an imbalanced relationship which encourages dependency.”
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