ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE/MOSCOW--U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he believed the United States was making progress in its talks to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, but declined to provide details about any communications he had had with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump indicated that the two men had been in contact; that would mark the first officially acknowledged conversation between Putin and a U.S president since early 2022.
Asked whether he had had his conversation with Putin since he became president on January 20 or before, Trump said: “I’ve had it. Let’s just say I’ve had it...And I expect to have many more conversations. We have to get that war ended.”
“If we are talking, I don’t want to tell you about the conversations,” Trump said. “I do believe we’re making progress. We want to stop the Ukraine-Russia war.”
The president said the United States was in touch with Russia and Ukraine. "We're talking to both sides," he said.
Trump has promised to end the war but not set out yet in public how he would do so.In a Friday interview with the New York Post, Trump said that he had "better not say" how many times he and Putin had spoken and did not disclose when the latest conversation had taken place.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the TASS state news agency that "many different communications are emerging."
"I personally may not know something, be unaware of something," Peskov said when asked by TASS to comment. "Therefore, in this case, I can neither confirm nor deny it."
U.S. National Security Adviser Mike Waltz also declined to elaborate when asked about communications between the two countries."There certainly are a lot of sensitive conversations going on," Waltz said on NBC News.
Trump has repeatedly said he wants to end the war and that he will meet with Putin to discuss it, though the date or venue for such a meeting has not been announced. Trump told reporters on Sunday that he would meet with Putin at an appropriate time.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are seen by Russia as possible venues for a summit, Reuters reported earlier this month. In the coming days, a flurry of U.S. officials are heading to Europe in part to discuss the war, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance and Keith Kellogg, the special envoy for the Ukraine war.
