Trump denied that Ukraine was being excluded from the direct negotiations between the two nuclear-armed superpowers.
US President Donald Trump revealed Wednesday he expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Saudi Arabia for Ukraine peace talks, in an extraordinary thaw in relations after a surprise phone call between the two leaders.
In their first confirmed contact since Trumpโs return to the White House, the US president said he had held a โlengthy and highly productiveโ conversation with the Russian counterpart who ordered the bloody 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
But the move sparked concerns that Ukraine will be left out of talks on its own fate, after Trump said Kyivโs wish to join NATO was not โpracticalโ โ a key demand of Moscow.
Trump, who has been pushing for a quick end to the nearly three-year war, denied that Ukraine was being excluded from the direct negotiations between the two nuclear-armed superpowers.
โWe expect that heโll come here, and Iโll go there โ and weโre going to meet probably in Saudi Arabia the first time,โ Trump told reporters in the Oval Office about his plans to meet Putin.
Trump said he expected it to happen โin the not too distant futureโ and added that Saudi Crown Prince Prince Mohammed bin Salman โ who played a key role in a Russia-US prisoner exchange this week โ would also be involved.
The Kremlin said the call lasted nearly one-and-a-half hours. The two leaders had agreed that the โtime has come to work togetherโ and that Putin has invited Trump to Moscow, it said.
Before taking office on January 20, Trump had promised to end the Ukraine war โwithin 24 hoursโ.
โ โMake peaceโ โ
Trump took the world by surprise as he announced the phone call on his Truth Social platform earlier, saying he and Putin had โboth agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine,โ using an unconfirmed figure for the toll in the conflict.
The US president said they had agreed to โwork together very closely, including visiting each otherโs Nationsโ and to โhave our respective teams start negotiations immediatelyโ on Ukraine.
Trump later called Ukraineโs President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was not included on the call with Putin.
Zelensky said afterwards that he had a โmeaningfulโ call with Trump in which he had โshared detailsโ of his talks with Putin.
Trump said after the conversation that Zelensky โlike President Putin, wants to make PEACE.โ
Andriy Yermak, head of Kyivโs presidential office, said in televised comments that Zelensky and Trump had agreed to โimmediatelyโ start work on the high-level teams from each side who will try to hash out a deal.
The teams will โbegin a process of daily workโ and Zelensky and his officials will meet US officials involved at the Munich Security Conference in a dayโs time, Yermak said.
But Trumpโs call with Putin has raised concerns that the United States was agreeing to Russiaโs terms.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth told European counterparts earlier Wednesday that Ukraineโs dream of returning to its pre-2014 borders was an โillusionary goalโ โ and that Kyivโs wish for NATO membership was โnot realistic.โ
Both are key demands of Moscow.
Trump denied that Zelensky was being frozen out, and rejected criticism that Hegsethโs comments meant Washington was agreeing to Russiaโs preconditions.
Yermak meanwhile reiterated Kyivโs stance that Ukraineโs โindependence, territorial integrity and sovereigntyโ cannot be subject to compromise.
The Ukrainian leader is calling for tough security guarantees from Washington as part of any deal with Russia. Trump has meanwhile suggested a deal for Kyivโs rare earth minerals in exchange for its continued military aid.
โ โRoot causesโ โ
Zelensky is due to meet US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday at the Munich Security Conference, after meeting US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Kyiv on Wednesday.
The Kremlinโs statement on the call with Trump was more measured.
It said Putin โagreed with Trump that a long-term settlement could be reached through peace negotiationsโ but said he wanted to โaddress the root causes of the conflict,โ which Russian blames on western influence on Kyiv.
There had been signs of a thaw this week with a prisoner swap deal that saw Moscow free US teacher Marc Fogel and Belarus release a US citizen, while Washington released Russian cryptocurrency kingpin Alexander Vinnik.
Trump has previously expressed admiration for Putin and heaped praise on the Russian president in his Truth Social post. He said Putin โeven used my very strong Campaign motto of, โCOMMON SENSE.’โ and thanked him for Fogelโs release.
However, concern has been mounting in Kyiv and European capitals about the shape of a possible deal.
The French, German and Spanish foreign ministers insisted Wednesday that there could be โno just and lasting peaceโ without the involvement of Kyiv and its European partners.
