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President Donald Trump has said the US and Moscow will begin negotiations “immediately” on ending the war in Ukraine after speaking with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Trump said the two leaders had also agreed to work together and visit each other’s nations during the call, which the Kremlin said lasted for nearly 90 minutes.
“I just had a lengthy and highly productive phone call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“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, and we will begin by calling President Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation, something which I will be doing right now.”
Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, said the Russian president agreed with Trump that “the time has come for our countries to work together” and that a “long-term solution can be achieved through peace negotiations”, but warned it was “essential to settle the reasons for the conflict”.
Russia has staked out a hardline position ahead of any talks, demanding Nato roll back most of its post-cold war deployments in eastern Europe and insisting Ukraine recognise its annexation of four south-eastern regions, none of which it fully controls.
Peskov said Putin had invited Trump to Moscow and was prepared to meet with US officials to discuss “issues of mutual interests”. The two leaders also discussed bilateral economic co-operation and the Iranian nuclear programme, Peskov told reporters.
Shortly after his call with the Russian leader, Trump was on the phone with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a senior member of the Ukrainian president’s team told the Financial Times.
Zelenskyy had publicly expressed concern about Trump speaking to Putin about Russia’s war against his country before calling him to talk over a mutual strategy to bring Moscow to the negotiating table.
Trump said he had directed secretary of state Marco Rubio, CIA director John Ratcliffe, national security adviser Mike Waltz and special envoy Steve Witkoff to head the US negotiating team. Trump’s list did not included his Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg.
Ahead of the talks, defence secretary Pete Hegseth outlined the US’s position, saying a durable peace for Ukraine “must include robust security guarantees” to ensure war would not begin again but that Washington “does not believe that Nato membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome”.
A return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders was also an “unrealistic objective”, Hegseth said.
The announcement from Trump confirms fears in Europe, which have grown in recent weeks, that the US would not involve the EU or major European capitals in the negotiations over Ukraine’s future.
EU diplomats had unsuccessfully sought to lobby the Trump administration for a role in the talks, people involved in the efforts told the FT, stressing that Ukraine’s post-conflict state was a critical part of Europe’s security architecture.
Instead, EU capitals believe they will be told to pay for whatever deal is agreed in money, arms and troops on the ground as peacekeepers.
“How to implement any deal without Europe?” said one western official in response to Trump’s statement. “Cash and boots would be European.”
Trump’s announcement came after Moscow released American teacher Marc Fogel from detention in a move the White House said was a show of “good faith” that would help the talks move along. In exchange, the US will release Alexander Vinnik, a Russian who operated cryptocurrency platform BTC-e and was accused of laundering billions of dollars’ worth of bitcoin.
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