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 Truth Social. The call marks Trump’s first known conversation with Putin since taking office.
“First, as we both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine.”
Speaking with reporters at the White House later on Feb. 12, Trump said he may soon meet with Putin in person in Saudi Arabia, though he didn’t provide an exact timeline for such a meeting.
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.
In another post on Truth Social, Trump
said that conversation “went very well” and that Zelenskyy also wants to negotiate a peace agreement.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also met with Zelenskyy in person in Kyiv 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 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. Speaking with reporters on Feb. 12, Trump stood by Hegseth’s assessment of Ukraine’s war time prospects and reinforced his opposition to Ukraine joining 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, he 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.”
