WASHINGTON/MOSCOW/KYIV--Donald Trump said both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy expressed a desire for peace in separate phone calls with him on Wednesday, and Trump ordered top U.S. officials to begin talks on ending the war in Ukraine.
The conversations came after Trump's defense secretary earlier said Kyiv would have to give up its long-held goals of joining the NATO military alliance and regaining all of its territory seized by Russia, signalling a dramatic shift in Washington's approach to the conflict.
After speaking with Putin for more than an hour, Trump said the Russian leader, who launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, wants the war to end and they discussed "getting a ceasefire in the not-too-distant future."
"He wants it to end. He doesn't want to end it and then go back to fighting six months later," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
"I think we're on the way to getting peace. I think President Putin wants peace, President Zelenskiy wants peace and I want peace. I just want to see people stop getting killed," he added.
Trump has long said he would quickly end the war in Ukraine, without spelling out exactly how he would accomplish this.The Kremlin earlier said Putin and Trump had agreed to meet, and Putin had invited Trump to visit Moscow. Trump said their first meeting would "probably" take place soon in Saudi Arabia.
In a post on his social media platform, he said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, national security adviser Michael Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff would lead negotiations on ending the war.
Trump and Zelenskiy spoke after Trump's call with Putin, and Zelenskiy's office said the conversation lasted for about an hour."I had a meaningful conversation with @POTUS. We... talked about opportunities to achieve peace, discussed our readiness to work together ...and Ukraine's technological capabilities... including drones and other advanced industries," Zelenskiy wrote on X.
No Ukraine peace talks have been held since the early months of the conflict, now approaching its third anniversary. Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden, oversaw billions of dollars of military and other aid to Kyiv and had no direct contact with Putin after Russia's invasion.
Russia occupies around a fifth of Ukraine and has demanded Kyiv cede more territory and be rendered permanently neutral under any peace deal.Ukraine demands Russia withdraw from captured territory and says it must receive NATO membership or equivalent security guarantees to prevent Moscow from attacking again.
Earlier on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered the new administration's bluntest statement so far on its approach to the war, saying it was unrealistic for Kyiv to hope to recover all of Ukraine's territory occupied by Russia since 2014, as was securing its membership in NATO.
"We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine. But we must start by recognising that returning to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective," Hegseth told a meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels. "Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering."
Russia in 2014 annexed Crimea, which Ukraine and many Western countries consider to be occupied Ukrainian territory. Hegseth said any durable peace must include "robust security guarantees to ensure that the war will not begin again." But he said U.S. troops would not be deployed to Ukraine as part of such guarantees.
Germany, France, Poland, Italy, Spain, U.K. and European Union said in a joint statement Ukraine's fate must not be decided without Kyiv's active participation. They said they were ready to enhance support for Ukraine and put it in a position of strength.
