After phone calls with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts on Feb. 12, President Donald Trump announced Russia is ready to “start negotiations immediately” to end its war with Ukraine.
“I just had a lengthy and highly productive phone call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social media account, as he announced the first of his two calls.
The call is Trump’s first known direct conversation with Putin since returning to the White House, and comes as the full-scale Russia-Ukraine war is nearing the three-year mark.
“First, as we both agreed, we want to stop the … deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine,” Trump wrote.
Shortly after wrapping his call with Putin, Trump got on the line with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to fill him in on the first call and keep the talks moving.
“The conversation went very well,” Trump said in a second Truth Social post recounting his call with Zelenskyy. “He, like President Putin, wants to make PEACE.”
Zelenskyy also met in-person with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday, and is preparing to meet with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Germany on Friday.
Speaking with reporters at the White House later on Wednesday, Trump announced he hopes to meet with Putin in person in Saudi Arabia sometime soon, though he didn’t provide an exact timeline.
Meeting with Ukraine’s network of international backers in Belgium earlier on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pushed back on ambitions for Ukraine to regain all the territory it has lost during the war.
“We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine. But we must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective,” Hegseth said.
Hegseth also opposed talk of Ukraine joining the NATO alliance.
—Ryan Morgan
DOGE RELEASES REVOKED CONTRACTS
The Trump administration on Wednesday released receipts of federal contracts that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has revoked in its efforts to downsize government spending.
During a press briefing from the White House, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said DOGE has a website where staffers post the “receipts of the contracts that they are reviewing and the payments that they have stopped from going out the door” in coordination with agency heads.
Democrats in Washington have increasingly criticized both the Trump administration and DOGE for probing federal agencies without proper congressional oversight or transparency, as terminating appropriated funds is within Congress’s authority rather than the executive branch.
Leavitt pushed back on Wednesday and suggested the receipts were evidence of DOGE’s transparency.
“We have contracts upon contracts that we can send and provide this information to you,” Leavitt said. “Let me be very clear, we are not trying to hide anything. We have been incredibly transparent, and we will continue to be.”
The Epoch Times reviewed five examples of these contracts in a document sent by the White House, including a roughly $36,000 contract with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for “diversity, equity, inclusion [DEI], and accessibility training for leadership and supervisors who manage teams.”
Another payment, worth $3.4 million, involved adding 10 new members to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (USPTO) Council for Inclusive Innovation and was described by the White House as a “public relations firm contract.”
DOGE also terminated a contract from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service worth just under $58,000 for “Sri Lanka climate change mitigation, adaption, and resilience coordinator services.”
Another contract awarded $2.3 million to the Air Force’s Air University to support its DEI virtual reality training course.
The last contract the White House said DOGE eliminated was from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Job Corps, worth roughly $4 million to support “DEIA consulting services and training.”
USCIS, USPTO, USDA, Air University, and the Labor Department did not respond to requests for comment before publication time.
—Jacob Burg
BOOKMARKS
A U.S. Navy fighter jet crashed into the ocean near San Diego Bay on Feb. 12, just off Point Loma. Both pilots were able to eject and have been rescued, and an investigation into the crash is underway.
Trump has negotiated the release of three prisoners, one of whom is American, from prison in Belarus. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt referred to the move as “a remarkable victory,” saying “It speaks to President Trump’s deal-making ability.”
A D.C. federal judge has blocked DOGE from accessing student financial aid data, following a lawsuit by students at the University of California. The students allege DOGE is violating the Privacy Act of 1974, which forbids federal agencies from sharing their personal information with a third party.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has reclaimed the $59 million recently spent by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to house illegal immigrants at a New York hotel. The money had been disbursed to the Roosevelt Hotel, which Noem said “serves as a Tren de Aragua base of operations.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has advanced one step closer to being confirmed as head of Department of Health and Human Services, with the Senate voting 53–47 to move his nomination to a floor vote. The vote-along partisan lines—came shortly after the Senate confirmed Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence.
—Stacy Robinson
