Trump: Putin and Zelenskiy want peace

President Donald Trump said that both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian Voldymyr Zelenskiy expressed a desire for peace, during separate calls they had with him, and that Mr. Trump has ordered top American officials to start talks to end the war in Ukraine.

Phone communications were held after US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier declared that Ukraine would have to give up its NATO membership target and efforts to return to the borders of 2014. He made comments in Brussels, where he is participating in his first NATO meeting.

After talking with Mr. Putin for more than an hour, Mr. Trump said the Russian leader, who launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine in 2022, supports ending the war and that they had discussed “achieve a ceasefire in a not too distant future”.

He wants the war to end. He doesn't want the war to stop and the fighting back in six months, Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House.

I think we're on our way to achieving peace. I think President Putin wants peace, President Zelenskiy wants peace, I want peace. I just want to stop seeing people get killed” The American president added.

Mr. Trump has long stated that he intends to end the war in Ukraine, but without specifying how he can do so.

Earlier, the Kremlin said that Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump had agreed to meet and that the Russian leader had invited the American president to visit Moscow. Mr. Trump said that their first meeting “could maybe --x1> happen soon in Saudi Arabia.

In a post on his social platform, Mr. Trump said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA chief John Ratcliffe, national security adviser Michael Waltz and US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Whitoff would lead negotiations to end the war.

President Trump and President Zelensky spoke after Mr. Trump's conversation with the Russian leader. President Zelensky's office said that the sound conversation was about an hour.

I had a meaningful conversation with the President of the United States. We talked... about opportunities to achieve peace, discussed our willingness to work together... and the technological capacities of Ukraine... including the fears and advanced industries”, wrote Mr. Zelensky on platform X.

President Trump said Secretary Rubio and Vice President JD Vance will hold war-related talks Friday at the annual security conference in Munich, where Ukrainian officials are expected to participate.

Phone calls came after the prisoner's exchange, during which Russia freed American teacher Marc Fogel from Pennsylvania after three years of prison stay on charges of drug possession. Alexander Winnik, a convicted Russian criminal, is being released in exchange for Mr. Fogel from Russia, according to sources aware of the agreement they spoke on condition of not being identified.

Winnik was arrested in 2017 in Greece at the request of the American authorities on charges of fraud. He was later extradited to the United States, where he pleaded guilty for participation in the money laundering plot. He is currently in prison in Caliphony, waiting for transportation to return to Russia, according to officials.

President Putin spoke with an American president for the last time in February 2022 when he also had a call with President Joe Biden shortly after which he ordered the introduction of thousands of troops to Ukraine.

During the first year of the war, Ukraine managed to get Russian forces out of the neighborhood around Kiev and recaptured large parts of Russia's occupied territory.

But Moscow has been to the advantage in the battlefield since Ukraine's failed counteroffensiveness in 2023, slowly but gradually in intense fighting that has caused the deaths or injuries of hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides and that has destroyed Ukrainian cities.

Russia has about one fifth of Ukraine under its control and requires Kiev to give up more territories and to be declared as part of the peaceful agreement as a neutral state forever. Ukraine wants Russia to withdraw from occupied territories and says it must join NATO or offer similar security guarantees to prevent a renewed Moscow attack.

In recent discussions, Kiev appears to have admitted that it will not be admitted to NATO soon and has stressed the need for military support as part of a peace agreement.

“If Ukraine is not in NATO, it means Ukraine will build NATO on its territory. That's why we need a big army like Russia has today”, Zelensky said in an interview for the magazine The Economist, which was released Wednesday.

And for that, we need weapons and funds. And that's what we're going to ask the United States of America”, said he, describing this as his “plan B”. / VOA