Feb. 12 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the two men agreed to end the 3-year-old war between Russia and Ukraine.
“We want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the war with Russia/Ukraine,” Trump said Wednesday in a news release shared with UPI.
“We agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other’s nations. We have also agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately, and we will begin by calling President [Volodymyr] Zelensky, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation,” Trump said.
Trump has asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, National Security Adviser Michael Waltz and special envoy Steve Witkoff to lead the negotiations to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Witkoff met with Putin in private on Tuesday after securing the release of American teacher Marc Fogel, who had served 3.5 years of a 14-year prison sentence after being found with a half-ounce of medical marijuana in his luggage when arriving in Russia in 2021.
“Millions of people have died in a war that would not have happened if I were president,” Trump said, “but it did happen, so it must end. No more lives should be lost!”
The 90-minute phone conversation between Trump and Putin is the first between the two world leaders since Trump was sworn in as president on Jan. 20. Former President Joe Biden and Putin hadn’t talked during the prior three years.
Trump said he wants to bring a swift end to the war and spoke with Zelensky via telephone shortly after his conversation with Putin.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia must include assurances of Ukraine’s security but won’t include admitting Ukraine as a member of NATO.
Instead of giving Ukraine NATO membership, which would pose a threat to Russia, Hegseth said European and non-European nations should provide troops to maintain peace once it is achieved.
Hegseth said it would be “unrealistic” to expect Ukraine to resume its former 2014 borders after Russia captured significant areas of eastern and southern Ukraine after invading in February 2022.
Russia controls about 20% of Ukraine’s former territory, but Ukraine last year launched a counteroffensive in the Kursk area of western Russia and still has troops in that area.
