 "Russia's President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump. File Image/Reuters")
US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Wednesday had a “lengthy and highly productive” call where both the leaders agreed to start Ukraine negotiations ‘immediately’.
Trump said on Truth Social that both leaders had extended invitations of “visiting each other’s nations,” while the US leader said he would be calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “right now” to inform him about the call.
Confirming the call, Kremlin said that President Putin told Trump that “peaceful negotiations” on ending the Ukraine conflict were possible.
“President Putin … agreed with Trump that a long-term settlement could be reached through peace negotiations,” AFP quoted Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying in his readout of the call, which he said lasted almost one-and-a-half hours.
“President Trump spoke in favour of stopping hostilities as soon as possible and solving the problem by peaceful means.”
The conversation marks the first confirmation by Moscow of contact between the two leaders since Trump came to office last month, and comes as the Republican pushes for an end to the nearly three years of fighting.
In his Truth Social post, Trump heaped praise on the Russian President, saying that Putin “even used my very strong Campaign motto of, ‘COMMON SENSE.’”
He said they “both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine” – with Trump using an unconfirmed figure for the toll in the war.
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More Shorts“We agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other’s Nations,” said Trump.
“We have also agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately, and we will begin by calling President Zelensky, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation, something which I will be doing right now.”
Trump said he had asked US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz and his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff “to lead the negotiations which, I feel strongly, will be successful.”
In addition to Ukraine, the two leaders discussed the exchange of prisoners, Iran’s nuclear programme and the situation in the Middle East, he added.
With inputs from agencies