Cnn
–
President Donald Trump said negotiations to end the Ukraine war will start “immediately” after retaining a “long and very productive” telephone call with Russian president Vladimir Putin on Wednesday morning.
The call, which is the first known conversation between the presidents since Trump took up his duties last month, came as Trump clearly indicates to his advisers that he wants to put the Ukrainian conflict to a rapid end.
Trump administration officials said they hoped for a prisoner “exchange” could advance renewed efforts to end the war, which is about to enter its fourth year.
Now, while the two leaders resume communication after a long period of silence between the White House and the Kremlin, the contours of the Trump settlement plan are clearer.
In a reading of the conversation published on Truth Social, Trump said: “We have discussed Ukraine, the Middle East, Energy, Artificial Intelligence, the power of the Dollar and various other subjects. »»
“We have agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting the nations of each other. We have also accepted that our respective teams immediately start negotiations, and we will start by calling President Zelenskyy, from Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation, something I will do right now, “Trump wrote.
Washington and Moscow, in their descriptions of the call, suggested that men have assumed a conciliatory tone.
“President Putin even used my very strong” Common Sense “countryside motto. We both believe in it very strongly, “wrote Trump, suggesting that the former KGB agent at the other end of the line had chosen his words carefully to call on the American leader.
The Kremlin said Trump and Putin spoke for almost 90 minutes.
Trump had been reporting his desire to speak with Putin for weeks while he was working to resolve the Ukrainian conflict.
While US officials are traveling to Europe this week, they started taking clearer positions on how the conclusion of the Ukraine War could look like. Addressing a conference in Brussels, the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said that kyiv joining NATO is not realistic and that the United States will no longer favor European and Ukrainian security while administration Trump changes his attention to the security of American borders and the deterrence of war with China.
Meanwhile, Trump spoke of concluding an agreement with Ukraine Zelensky for American access to the precious minerals of the country’s rare land as payment for continuous American assistance.
Trump spoke with Zelensky at noon, shortly after leaving the phone with Putin.
His predecessor, President Joe Biden, had not spoken to his Russian counterpart for almost three years, believing that there was not much to win by speaking to a chief that he had tried a criminal of war.
The last American president to visit Russia was Barack Obama in 2013 when he attended a G20 summit. Putin last time in the United States in 2015 to attend the United Nations talks.
Later on Wednesday, Trump said he could soon meet Putin in Saudi Arabia, but warned that no official decision had been made on this subject.
“We think we are likely to meet in Saudi Arabia, the first meeting,” said Trump, a few hours after the two talked by phone.
The president said that the Saudi leader of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman would play a role in the discussions, saying: “We know the Crown Prince, and I think it would be a very good place to be.”
A date for this meeting, said Trump, “was not set”, but he said it could be in the “not too far future”.
Trump added that he has not yet committed to going to Ukraine.
When asked if Zelensky would be present when he meets Putin, Trump seemed to suggest that he would not be present for the initial meeting: “We will probably have a first meeting and then we will see what we can do for the Second meeting. “”
“I would think of going there, I would think about it, no problem,” he said.
Steve Witkoff, who will be among Trump’s best negotiators on the conflict, said the release of the American on Wednesday wrongly Marc Fogel as “an indication of what the possibilities are” for the future of the war of the war Russia in Ukraine.
“I think it may be a sign on how this working relationship between President Trump and President Putin will be in the future, and what it might predict for the world in general, for conflicts and so on. I think they had a great friendship, and I think now it will continue, and it is a very good thing for the world, “he said.
Witkoff met in private Putin in Moscow on Tuesday, two sources familiar with the meeting told CNN.
CNN Maher kit, Anna Chernova and Christian Edwards contributed to this report.
This story and this title have been updated with additional developments.