U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a joint press conference after their summit on July 16, 2018, in Helsinki, Finland.
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Almost three years after Russia invaded Ukraine, talks to end the war that has led to the loss of tens of thousands of lives are set to begin, U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday.
The White House leader said he had spoken to both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the phone, and that both leaders had said they wanted peace. Trump said he had instructed U.S. officials to begin peace talks immediately.
Elaborating on his conversation with Putin, Trump said the heads of state had a “lengthy and highly productive phone call” in which they had discussed the war, and noted that the Russian president had agreed that it was “common sense” to end the conflict that has caused widescale destruction in Ukraine and led to the deaths of thousands of soldiers and civilians.
“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 said in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Trump said he and Putin agreed to work closely and visit each other’s countries, adding that both men would instruct their respective teams to start negotiations immediately.
Trump said he had then spoken to President Zelenskyy who, he said, also wanted to “make peace.”
“I am hopeful that the results of that meeting will be positive. It is time to stop this ridiculous War, where there has been massive, and totally unnecessary, DEATH and DESTRUCTION,” Trump stated in a separate post.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (second from left) and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte (center) attend the NATO Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on Feb. 12, 2025.
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Before Trump’s announcement regarding negotiations, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had poured cold water on Ukraine’s hopes of joining military alliance NATO and of regaining lost territories after Russia’s 2014 invasion of Crimea.
“We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine. But we must start by recognising that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective,” Hegseth told officials from around 50 countries allied to Ukraine in Brussels on Wednesday, according to NBC News reporting.
“Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering,” he said.
Trump later concurred that it was “probably true” that there was no likelihood of Ukraine joining NATO. He agreed that the odds were slim that Ukraine would return to its pre-2014 borders, but said “some of that land will come back” as part of a peace deal.
Before its fullscale invasion that began on Feb.24, 2022, Russian forces had invaded the Crimean peninsula in 2014, and then backed and armed pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas in eastern Ukraine.
After almost three years of wholesale war, Russian forces now occupy around 20% of heavily-fortified territory in the south and east of the country, according to analysts.
This developing news story is being updated.
