Phone call between Trump and Putin about the Ukraine war

After US mediators traveled to Kiev and Moscow for talks about ending the war in Ukraine, US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone. The Russian leader assured Trump that he had no “aggressive plans” regarding Europe, Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters.

The two presidents “exchanged their positions in their typical professional and respectful manner,” said Russian presidential advisor Ushakov, praising the telephone conversation.

The phone conversation lasted “exactly an hour” and was “constructive and extremely open,” he added. Putin presented Trump with an “objective and detailed analysis” of the situation on the front lines in Ukraine. He also explained “what the Americans could do to quickly end the fighting,” said Ushakov. The Kremlin adviser did not elaborate on this point in his remarks.

The US President had promised Moscow a complete restoration of relations between Russia and the US in the event of an end to the Ukraine conflict. Further exchanges of prisoners were also discussed.

Russia has been waging war against its neighbor Ukraine since February 2022. Washington has long been trying to reach a peace agreement between the two warring parties. Putin and Trump last spoke by phone on July 4th to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence.

US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner visited Moscow at the weekend and Kiev for the first time since the start of the war and spoke with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about ways to end the war in Ukraine. Moscow has so far made no move to back down from its maximum demands. These include Ukraine's cession of territory in the east - including regions that Russian troops have not yet taken over.

The Kremlin was recently accused of intensifying its sabotage campaign against Ukraine's European supporters. Moscow now rejected this: “The myths spread about the Russian threat serve as a pretext for Europeans to increase their support for Ukraine and their own military spending,” he said.