President Donald Trump on Wednesday confirmed he had a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin as Washington hopes to build momentum toward a peace deal ending the yearslong war between Moscow and Ukraine.
Ending the war, which some experts estimate has led to at least 2 million military casualties, has been a top priority of Trump’s second term, but has proved thus far to be persistently elusive. The bid appeared to gain some steam over the weekend, when the president deployed two of his top negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, overseas to talk about a possible deal with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trump told reporters on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews that he also discussed an agreement during a personal phone call with Putin, which appeared to take place Tuesday.
“We had a great conversation,” the president said. “He is wanting to make a deal. And if Zelensky is wanting to make a deal, that would be very nice.
“The holdup is two people that hate each other,” Trump said. “I think more than anything else, it’s two people that hate each other.”
In the latest negotiations, the United States is exploring whether Ukraine and Russia could take steps to de-escalate the war during the winter while restarting negotiations toward a broader peace agreement, according to the Ukrainian president. Zelensky told Axios on Monday that while he’s convinced Putin is counting on another brutal winter to weaken Ukraine, he doesn’t believe the Russian president would want to antagonize Trump ahead of the midterm elections, possibly opening the door to diplomacy.
Zelensky said Tuesday that he could meet with Trump later this month, after the war stretched past the four-and-a-1/2-year mark.
“It’s going to take both sides to make some compromises and narrow the issues between them, and we think we have the ingredients to get to that place,” Witkoff said Sunday after meeting with Putin and Zelensky over the weekend. “It is very difficult, but we are committed, we care, and we hope all of that leads to a successful, peaceful diplomatic resolution.”
TRUMP ENVOYS HAIL ‘ENCOURAGING’ TALKS IN KYIV TO END RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
Before meeting with Zelensky in Ukraine on Sunday, Witkoff and Kushner held a three-hour meeting with Putin in Moscow on Saturday. The Kremlin hailed the meeting as “highly useful,” while Trump’s team praised “new ideas” and “a lot of progress in Moscow,” expressing hope that a new round of U.S.-mediated Ukraine-Russia talks would be announced “in short order.”
Zelensky also praised the “very substantive” conversation with Trump’s envoys, and said Ukraine is ready for trilateral talks.