Donald Trump recently expressed his agreement with Russia’s objection to Ukraine joining NATO. “Personally, I don’t think it’s practical to have them in. Even before President Putin, they had made it clear that they would never allow such a thing. This has been going on for many, many years. They have been saying for a long time that Ukraine cannot join NATO, and I agree,” Trump told reporters.
The phone call came after a 24-hour surge in contacts between Russia and the US, surprising Ukraine and European countries.
Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump had a lengthy conversation – an hour and a half according to the Kremlin – deciding to “immediately start negotiations” on Ukraine, as announced by the American president, expressing firm belief that they will be successful. This sentiment was echoed by the Russian president, who believes a “long-term solution” to the conflict is possible.
Immediately after, Trump called Volodymyr Zelensky, with whom he spoke for an hour, according to an advisor to the Ukrainian president. The conversation went “very well,” commented the tycoon on Truth, stating that “Zelensky, like President Putin, also wants peace.” “No one – Zelensky responded – desires peace more than Ukraine. Together with the United States, we are outlining our next steps to stop Russian aggression and ensure lasting and reliable peace. As President Trump said, let’s do it.” Trump announced that he and Putin have “agreed to work together very closely, even visiting each other’s nations.” In the evening, the American president further stated that the meeting with the Russian leader will take place in Saudi Arabia, without providing additional details, emphasizing that a ceasefire in Ukraine could occur “in the not too distant future,” but that Kiev’s accession to NATO would not be “realistic.”
For his part, the Kremlin leader invited the tycoon to Moscow. The two presidents agreed to promptly initiate negotiations with their respective teams. The US team will include Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, and Ambassador and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff. Witkoff, previously known as the White House envoy for the Middle East, unexpectedly arrived in Moscow yesterday to bring back Mark Fogel, the American teacher detained in Russia since 2021. In exchange for his release, US authorities announced the release of Russian citizen Alexander Vinnik, arrested in Greece and extradited to the US in 2022 on serious money laundering charges. During the visit to the Russian capital, Witkoff reportedly had a three-and-a-half-hour face-to-face meeting with Putin, according to Fox News host Sean Hannity. This circumstance was neither confirmed nor denied by Marco Rubio, interviewed by Hannity, nor by the Kremlin.
The presidential office stated that Putin “supported one of the main arguments of the American head of state, that it is time for our countries to work together.” During the conversation, in addition to Ukraine, they also discussed “solving the Middle East crisis, the Iranian nuclear program, and Russian-American bilateral economic relations.”
Between Witkoff’s mission to Moscow and the meeting between Trump and Putin, there was time in Brussels for a meeting of the contact group on Ukraine, where US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth bluntly clarified Washington’s intentions: the Ukrainians must give up joining NATO and reclaiming the territories they held until 2014. The US also has no intention of participating in any peacekeeping force after a ceasefire. Zelensky and the European Union tried to counter this stance.
In an interview with The Economist, the Ukrainian president expressed his belief that Trump does not yet have a plan for ending the conflict. “Without consultations with us, I don’t think it can be completed,” he added. “Europe must be present at the negotiation table because the outcome will greatly affect us,” was the request of EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas. Zelensky also tried to propose a territory exchange with Moscow, suggesting returning a small portion of the Russian Kursk region occupied by Ukrainian troops in exchange for parts of the Ukrainian provinces captured by the Russians.
“This is impossible, Russia has never discussed and will never discuss exchanging its territory,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists, promising that the Ukrainian military units still present in Kursk will be “destroyed.”
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