Trump, Putin wants peace in Ukraine after telephone conversation; may meet in Saudi Arabia

US President Donald Trump has stated again that he wants peace in Ukraine. He made the comment on Wednesday after a long talk with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone, where they discussed ending the war in Ukraine.

He said that they agreed to have their respective teams immediately start negotiations aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.

Trump later told reporters at the White House that Putin said he wants the war to end. He noted that they talked about the possibility of a ceasefire. The US president said, “I think we’ll probably end up at some point getting a ceasefire in the not-too-distant future.”

As for negotiations with Russia, Trump said, “I’ll be dealing with President Putin, largely on the phone, and we ultimately expect to meet.”

He added: “We’re going to meet also, probably in Saudi Arabia the first time. It hasn’t been set, but not too distant future.”

He said they also talked about multiple other issues and made plans to visit each other’s nations.

Russia also confirmed the conversation. Presidential office spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the call lasted for almost an hour and a half. He said Putin told Trump that they need to address the root cause of the Ukraine conflict, and that the two leaders agreed that a lasting settlement will be achieved through peaceful negotiations.

Trump thereafter put in a call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The Ukrainian president confirmed on social media that he, too, had a phone call with Trump.

Zelenskyy said they talked a long time about the opportunity to make peace. He also said they discussed the preparation of a new document on security, economic cooperation and resource partnership.

Zelenskyy added that they agreed to keep communicating and plan upcoming meetings.

Ukraine has been seeking membership in NATO, but Trump said that appears to be “impractical,” noting that the Russians have been saying for a long time that “Ukraine cannot go into NATO.”

Trump also said it appears unlikely that Ukraine will be able to return to the borders it had before Russia unilaterally annexed Crimea in 2014.