U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the Ukraine war on Tuesday in a phone call which Washington hoped would convince Moscow to accept a 30-day ceasefire and move towards a permanent peace deal.
The White House said the talks had begun at 10 a.m. ET (1400 GMT) and White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino wrote on social media that the call was “going well”.
The Kremlin said the talks had ended, Russia’s TASS news agency reported.
Kirill Dmitriev, who was named by Putin last month as his special envoy on international economic and investment cooperation, said that under the leadership of Trump and Putin the world had become a much a safer place.
Ukraine has already agreed to the U.S.-proposed ceasefire in Europe’s biggest conflict since World War Two, in which hundreds of thousands of people have been killed or wounded, millions have been displaced and towns have been reduced to rubble.
Putin, whose forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022, said last week he supported in principle Washington’s proposal for a truce but that his forces would fight on until several crucial conditions were worked out.
Trump hopes also to secure progress towards a longer-term peace plan, which he has hinted could include territorial concessions by Kyiv and control of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
The Kremlin said before the call that Trump and Putin would discuss settling the conflict in Ukraine and normalising relations between Russia and the United States, and that they would speak “for as long as they deem necessary.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was already a “certain understanding” between the two leaders, based on a phone call they held on February 12 and on subsequent high-level contacts between the two countries.
“But there are also a large number of questions regarding the further normalisation of our bilateral relations, and a settlement on Ukraine,” Peskov told reporters.
(Reuters)