President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he had a “lengthy and highly productive” call with Russian President Vladimir Putin that touched on a number of topics, including the war in Ukraine. Notably, President Trump said the two leaders agreed to “have our respective teams start negotiations immediately.”
“We will begin by calling President Zelenskyy of Ukraine to inform him of the conversation, something which I will be doing right now,” the president shared on his Truth Social platform. That call was confirmed to have taken place shortly thereafter.
“I have asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of the CIA John Ratcliffe, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, and Ambassador and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, to lead the negotiations which, I feel strongly, will be successful,” the president wrote. “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.”
Trump further stated the conversations began because he and Putin “want to stop the millions of deaths taking place.” The war in Ukraine started in 2014, and was severely escalated in 2022 when Russian forces invaded the former Soviet country.
“I just spoke to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine. The conversation went very well. He, like President Putin, wants to make PEACE,” Trump wrote in a follow-up post on Truth Social. “We discussed a variety of topics having to do with the War, but mostly, the meeting that is being set up on Friday in Munich, where Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will lead the Delegation. I am hopeful that the results of that meeting will be positive. It is time to stop this ridiculous War, where there has been massive, and totally unnecessary, DEATH and DESTRUCTION. God bless the people of Russia and Ukraine!”
Zelenskyy, however, warned on Thursday that Putin was not ” preparing for peace.” On Wednesday, despite the Trump White House touting peace, Russia launched a major missile attack on Kyiv. Zelenskyy emphasized to not trust Putin’s “claims of readiness to end the war.” The Ukrainian head of state also said he “warned world leaders against trusting” the Russian leader’s intentions.
Zelenskyy also remarked on Trump’s move to negotiate peace in Ukraine, “We simply cannot accept any agreements without our participation as an independent country. I make this very clear to our partners. Any bilateral negotiations concerning Ukraine – and I am not talking about other topics, in those they are free – any bilateral negotiations about Ukraine without us will not be accepted.”
Other topics covered by Trump and Putin, the president noted, were artificial intelligence, the Middle East, energy, the second World War and “the power of the dollar.”
The president also thanked Putin for the release of Marc Fogel, an American who had been imprisoned in Russia for more than three years for bringing a small amount of medical cannabis into the country; President Trump greeted the 63-year-old Pennsylvania teacher at the White House on Tuesday night.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt further confirmed the calls on Wednesday.
