President Donald Trump of the United States has said that both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy expressed a desire for peace in separate phone calls with him on Wednesday.
This is as Trump directed top US officials to begin talks on ending the war in Ukraine.
The telephone conversations came after Trump’s defense secretary earlier said Kyiv would have to give up its long-held goals of joining the NATO military alliance and regaining all of its territory seized by Russia, signaling a dramatic shift in Washington’s approach to the conflict.
Newspot reports that Trump, after speaking with Putin for more than an hour, said the Russian leader, who launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, wants the war to end, adding that they discussed getting a ceasefire in the not-too-distant future.
“He wants it to end. He doesn’t want to end it and then go back to fighting six months later.
“I think we’re on the way to getting peace. I think President Putin wants peace, President Zelenskiy wants peace, and I want peace. I just want to see people stop getting killed,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
Recall that Trump has long said he would quickly end the war in Ukraine, without spelling out exactly how he would accomplish this.
The Kremlin earlier said Putin and Trump had agreed to meet, and Putin had invited Trump to visit Moscow.
According to the US President, their first meeting would probably take place soon in Saudi Arabia.
In a post on his social media platform, Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, and Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff would lead negotiations on ending the war.
