Trump also discussed the plans with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy is due to meet with Vice President Vance on Feb. 14.
Following phone calls with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts on Feb. 12, President Donald Trump announced Russia has agreed to “start negotiations immediately” to end the war in Ukraine.
“I just had a lengthy and highly productive phone call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia,” Trump announced in a Feb. 12
post on his Truth Social media account. The call marks Trump’s first known conversation with Putin since taking office.
Trump said he and Putin discussed ways to end the war in Ukraine and improve relations between Russia and the United States.
“First, as we both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine,” Trump wrote.
So far, the Russian side has provided few additional details about the call between Trump and Putin.
In remarks carried by Russia’s state-sponsored TASS news agency, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the two leaders spoke for about an hour and a half.
Immediately after speaking with the Russian leader, Trump called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“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.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also met with Zelenskyy in person on Feb. 12.
Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will lead another U.S. delegation to meet with Zelenskyy in Germany on Friday, Feb. 14.
Putin and Trump’s phone conversation comes a day after the Trump administration secured the
release of Marc Fogel, who had been held in Russia since 2021 over a marijuana possession charge.
Trump thanked his Russian counterpart for agreeing to Fogel’s release.
Announcing Fogel’s release on Feb. 11, national security advisor Mike Waltz
said, “[The exchange] serves as a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine.”
The call between Trump and Putin also came on the same day Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met with Ukraine’s network of international backers in Belgium. At the meeting, Hegseth reiterated the Trump administration’s calls to negotiate an end to the war.
Hegseth also pushed
back on Ukraine’s ambitions to retake all of the territory it has lost to Russia throughout the war, and its wish to join NATO.
While Trump has called for negotiations to end the war, he has left open the possibility of continuing U.S. support for Ukraine. This week Trump announced he had taken steps on an agreement in which Ukraine would
trade access to its rare earth minerals in exchange for U.S. aid.
“No one wants peace more than Ukraine. Together with the U.S., we are charting our next steps to stop Russian aggression and ensure a lasting, reliable peace,” Zelenskyy said in a
post on social media platform X after his conversations with Trump and Bessent.
The Ukrainian leader also announced that a document is in the works that will cover a “security, economic cooperation, and resource partnership.”
This is a developing story. Additional details will follow.
