(Headline USA) President Donald Trump moved to end Joe Biden’s disastrous three-year-long proxy war against Russia on Wednesday, saying that he and Russian leader Vladimir Putin had agreed to begin negotiations on ending the war in Ukraine following a sudden prisoner swap.
Trump said in a social media post that he and Putin held a lengthy phone call and committed to “work together, very closely” to bring the conflict to an end and would meet in person, including perhaps in each other’s countries.
“We each talked about the strengths of our respective Nations, and the great benefit that we will someday have in working together. But first, as we both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine,” Trump wrote.
Trump said he and Putin also “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately.” He appointed Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA director John Ratcliffe, national security adviser Michael Waltz and his special Mideast envoy Steven Witkoff to lead those talks.
Trump subsequently announced that he’d also spoken with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the conversation between Trump and Putin covered a good deal of ground, including the Middle East and Iran, but that Ukraine was the main focus.
Peskov said Trump called for a quick cessation of hostilities and a peaceful settlement, and that “President Putin, in his turn, emphasized the need to remove the root causes of the conflict and agreed with Trump that a long-term settlement could be achieved through peace talks.”
“The Russian president supported one of the main theses of the U.S. president that the time has come for our two countries to work together,” Peskov told reporters. “The Russian president invited the U.S. president to visit Moscow and expressed readiness to host U.S. officials in Russia for issues of mutual interest, naturally including Ukraine, the Ukrainian settlement.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said of Trump’s conversations with both Putin and Zelenskyy: “They were very good calls. They were very positive.”
Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s special Russia-Ukraine envoy, retired Gen. Keith Kellogg, will all be in Germany this week for the annual Munich Security Conference, which Zelenskyy also will attend. Leavitt said discussions will continue then.
Wednesday’s Trump-Putin call and the resulting policy sea change followed a prisoner swap that resulted in Russia releasing Pennsylvania schoolteacher Marc Fogel after more than three years of detention in return for convicted Russian criminal Alexander Vinnik.
The White House has described the prisoner swap as evidence of a diplomatic thaw that could advance negotiations to end the fighting in Ukraine.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
