Washington — President Trump said Wednesday that he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin and directed members of his national security team to “immediately” begin negotiations aimed at ending Russia’s war with Ukraine.
The call between Mr. Trump and Putin is the first known conversation between the two since the president returned to the White House for a second term. It comes a day after Russia released Pennsylvania schoolteacher Marc Fogel, who was serving a 14-year sentence and was designated as wrongfully detained late last year.
“I just had a lengthy and highly productive phone call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “We discussed Ukraine, the Middle East, Energy, Artificial Intelligence, the power of the Dollar, and various other subjects.”
Mr. Trump said he and Putin talked about the “great benefit that we will someday have in working together” and agreed on the need to end Russia’s war with Ukraine. In addition to the pledge to begin discussions on the war in Ukraine, the president and his Russian counterpart said they would visit “each other’s nation.”
The president said he has directed Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, national security adviser Michael Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff to lead negotiations on the war. Mr. Trump also said he will call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday “to inform him of the conversation” with Russia’s leader.
“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. No more lives should be lost!” he wrote.
Mr. Trump’s conversation with Putin came shortly after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth seemed to undercut key Ukrainian positions in eventual peace talks, including by ruling out eventual membership in NATO. Speaking ahead of a closed-door meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contract Group about more aid, Hegseth said peace in the country must include security guarantees that “should not be provided through NATO membership, but must instead be backed by capable European and non-European troops.”
The defense chief also said Ukraine’s goal of returning to its borders before 2014, when Russia first invaded and annexed the Crimean Peninsula, was an “unrealistic objective.”
The president, too, addressed the prospect of Russia maintaining control of Ukrainian territory its forces have occupied during an interview with Fox News that aired Monday, suggesting Ukraine “may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday.”
Mr. Trump frequently claims that Russia would not have launched its invasion of Ukraine three years ago if he were president and vowed on the campaign trail to quickly bring an end to the war. Vice President JD Vance is set to meet with Ukraine’s Zelenskyy at a security conference in Munich that begins Friday.
The president has been a vehement critic of U.S. military aid to Ukraine, prompting concerns from Kyiv that assistance would stop flowing with him back in office. He told Fox News that aid could depend on Ukraine agreeing a trade deal that gives the U.S. access to its rare earth minerals.
“We are going to have all this money in there, and I say I want it back. And I told them that I want the equivalent, like $500 billion worth of rare earth,” he said. “They have essentially agreed to do that, so at least we don’t feel stupid.”
The U.S. has provided more than $65 billion in military assistance to Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion in February 2022, according to the State Department.
