 "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with US counterpart Donald Trump at the White House. File image/AP")
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he had a “very good call” with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy, adding that he sought to “align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs.”
“Just completed a very good telephone call with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine. It lasted approximately one hour. Much of the discussion was based on the call made yesterday with President Putin in order to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs,” Trump said.
He added, “We are very much on track, and I will ask Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, to give an accurate description of the points discussed.”
Kyiv said Zelenskyy was being briefed about Tuesday’s 90-minute call between Trump and Putin that saw the Kremlin leader agree to a limited 30-day halt on strikes against Ukraine’s power grid.
This was the first interaction between the two leaders after the White House fiasco where Trump and his vice president JD Vance blasted on the Ukrainian leader over his conduct of handling the conflict.
Putin agreed to pause strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities for 30 days following a call with Trump on Tuesday, having turned down the US president’s earlier proposal of halting all hostilities.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsTrump-Putin ’likely’ to meet
Meanwhile, US envoy Steve Witkoff told Bloomberg that Trump is “likely” to meet Putin in the near future.
“You know, I can’t speak for them, but my best bet would be that it’s likely to happen. They have a great rapport together. They had a great rapport in the first Trump administration,” he said.
He added, “It was on display yesterday. This was really a very positive, very proactive, outcome oriented call, and that’s who President Trump is. He’s there to get to the goalline. And we did a we went a long way yesterday to doing that.”
Riyadh talks 2.0
US Security Adviser Mike Waltz has said that the next round of negotiations on Ukraine war ceasefire in Riyadh will happen soon.
He said, “I spoke today with my Russian counterpart Yuri Ushakov about President Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine. We agreed our technical teams would meet in Riyadh in the coming days to focus on implementing and expanding the partial ceasefire President Trump secured from Russia.”