US President Donald Trump has said he had a “lengthy and highly productive” phone call with Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, in which the leaders agreed to begin negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he and the Russian president had “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately.”
Later, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had spoken with Trump about a “lasting, reliable peace.”
The calls with the warring sides came as both Trump and his defense secretary said Ukraine would unlikely join NATO, which will be a bitter disappointment to Kyiv.
Zelensky said he would meet Vice-President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a defense summit on Ukraine in Munich on Friday.
Trump wrote on social media: “It is time to stop this ridiculous war, where there has been massive and totally unnecessary DEATH and DESTRUCTION. God bless the people of Russia and Ukraine!”
He did not set a date for a face-to-face meeting with Putin, but later told reporters at the White House: “We’ll meet in Saudi Arabia.” He wrote on social media the pair had also invited each other to their respective capitals.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin supported Trump’s idea that the time had come to work together.
The phone call between Putin and Trump lasted nearly an hour-and-a-half, during which the Russian president extended an invitation to visit Moscow, Peskov said.
Trump also told reporters at the White House that it was unlikely Ukraine would return to its pre-2014 borders but, in response to a question from the BBC, he said “some of that land will come back.”
The president said he agreed with his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who told a NATO summit earlier on Wednesday that there was no likelihood of Ukraine joining the military alliance.
Later on Wednesday, seven European countries, including Britain, France and Germany, insisted they be part of any future negotiations on Ukraine’s fate.
“Our shared objectives should be to put Ukraine in a position of strength,” read the joint statement released after a meeting of foreign ministers in Paris. “Ukraine and Europe must be part of any negotiations.”
They called for strong security guarantees for Ukraine, and said they were looking forward to discussing the way forward with their American allies.
Zelensky has repeatedly argued there “can be no talks on Ukraine without Ukraine,” but the Trump-Putin phone call proved otherwise.
The Ukrainian president said his own call with Trump had been a “good and detailed discussion” about a variety of issues, and that he had also met US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is visiting Kyiv.
“No one wants peace more than Ukraine. Together with the US, we are charting our next steps to stop Russian aggression and ensure a lasting, reliable peace,” Zelensky wrote.
The Ukrainian leader added: “We agreed to maintain further contact and plan upcoming meetings.”
Here are other key developments of the week:
At least one person was killed and four others, including a nine-year-old child, were injured by a Russian missile strike in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said. The strike caused damage and fires in at least four areas of the city.
Regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said a woman was killed by a Ukrainian drone in Russia’s Belgorod region. Gladkov said the drone struck the victim’s car and killed her instantly.
Ukraine’s military said it shot down six out of seven ballistic missiles launched by Russia in an overnight attack. The Kremlin also launched a barrage of 123 attack drones at Kyiv, out of which 71 were shot down and 40 were likely deterred by “electronic countermeasures,” the military said.
Ukraine launched a drone attack on Enerhodar city near the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, hitting a car parked about 300 metres (0.2 miles) from one of the plant’s reactors, the Russian-installed regional governor for the occupied Zaporizhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky, said.
He also said there were no details yet about a potential Trump visit to Russia or a possible Putin visit to the US “There is a mutual invitation,” Peskov said. “But there is no concrete understanding about it.”
Ukraine’s security service said the chief of staff of its anti-terrorist department was arrested for allegedly spying for Russia. The agency said they discovered 14 episodes of the unnamed official’s illegal activities.
Compiled by Ana Dumbadze
