President Trump mentioned on Wednesday that he had a “prolonged and extremely productive cellphone name” with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, characterizing it as the start of a negotiation to finish the warfare in Ukraine.
It was the primary confirmed dialog between the 2 males throughout Mr. Trump’s second time period, coming as Mr. Trump has made clear to advisers that discovering a U.S.-backed finish to the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a precedence for his administration.
“We mentioned Ukraine, the Center East, Vitality, Synthetic Intelligence, the ability of the Greenback, and varied different topics,” Mr. Trump wrote in a social media publish.
“We every talked concerning the strengths of our respective Nations, and the good profit that we are going to sometime have in working collectively,” Mr. Trump added. “However first, as we each agreed, we wish to cease the hundreds of thousands of deaths going down within the Conflict with Russia/Ukraine.”
He mentioned he deliberate to tell President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine that each nations deliberate to “have our respective groups begin negotiations instantly.”
Mr. Trump wrote that the U.S. negotiating group would come with Secretary of State Marco Rubio; John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director; his nationwide safety adviser, Michael Waltz, and his Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, who was in Moscow this week and retrieved the American schoolteacher Marc Fogel, who was imprisoned for greater than three years in Russia.
The Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, informed reporters that the decision lasted virtually an hour and a half. He mentioned that the 2 males agreed to carry a private assembly and that Mr. Putin invited Mr. Trump to go to Moscow. He additionally mentioned that within the name, Mr. Putin agreed with Mr. Trump that “the time has come for our nations to work collectively.”
Mr. Trump has repeatedly refused to say whether or not he had spoken to Mr. Putin earlier than Wednesday, though people who would know of such a name within the U.S. authorities weren’t conscious of 1, in accordance with folks briefed on the president’s conversations.
Mr. Trump has usually made admiring remarks concerning the Russian president, whom he called a “genius” after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. However within the first week of Mr. Trump’s second time period, he was extra crucial, saying the Russian president mustn’t have invaded Ukraine.
“He can’t be thrilled; he’s not doing so nicely,” Mr. Trump told reporters within the Oval Workplace hours after he was inaugurated. “Russia is greater. They’ve extra troopers to lose, however that’s no approach to run a rustic.”
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