BBC News
Kiev reporting
EPAUS President Donald Trump said he had a “long -lasting and highly productive” telephone conversation with Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, in which leaders agreed to start negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
In a publication in his social platform for the truth, Trump said that he and the Russian president “agreed to make our respective teams start negotiations immediately” and invited to visit their respective capitals.
Later, Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski said he also spoke with Trump about “lasting, reliable peace”.
Calls with the two feuding sides came as Trump and his Minister of Defense have said that Ukraine is unlikely to join NATO, which will come as a bitter disappointment for Kiev.
Zelenski said he would meet with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio during the Ukraine Defense Summit held in Munich on Friday.
Trump wrote on social media: “It's time to stop this ridiculous war where there was a large -scale and completely unnecessary death and destruction. God bless the people of Russia and Ukraine!”
He did not appoint a face-to-face meeting with Putin, but later told reporters in the White House: “We will meet in Saudi Arabia.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin supported Trump's idea that the time had come to work together.
The telephone conversation between Putin and Trump lasted for about an hour and a half, during which the Russian president invited to visit Moscow, Peskov said.
Trump also told reporters in the White House that it is unlikely that Ukraine will return to its borders before 2014, but in response to a question from the BBC said that “part of this land will return.”
The president said he had agreed with his Minister of Defense Pete Heget, who said at a NATO summit early on Thursday that Ukraine was unlikely to join the Military Union.
“I think this is probably true,” Trump said.
Heget's speech will be a blow to the body for Kyiv.
Although it has long been known that the News AS administration is less sympathetic than its predecessor to Ukraine, any Heget's statement will probably only please Moscow.
There was a refusal of NATO membership, the opinion that Ukraine could not win the ambiguity of how the frozen front line would be polished in the future – all this added to a noticeable return for Russia's 11 -year aggression to Ukraine.
Zelenski repeatedly claims that “there can be no conversations about Ukraine without Ukraine” – but Trump -Putin's telephone conversation was held in his absence.
Zelenski said his call with Trump was a “meaningful conversation” about various issues and that he also met with US Secretary of Finance Scott Besnten, who visits Kiev.
“Nobody wants peace more than Ukraine. Together with the US, we outline our next steps to stop Russian aggression and guarantee a lasting, reliable peace,” Zelenski wrote. “
The Ukrainian leader added: “We agreed to maintain more contact and to plan upcoming meetings.”
The call between the US and the Ukrainian leaders has lasted an hour, according to AFP news agency.
In Interview with The Guardian Published on Tuesday, Zelenski suggested that the territory held by Russia in Ukraine could be replaced for Ukrainian territory in the Russian Kursk region as part of a peaceful deal.
He also insisted that the US, not just European countries, would have to be part of any security package for his country.
“Security guarantees without America are not real security guarantees,” he said.
Russia annexed the Black Sea Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in March 2014 and then supported pro -Russian separatists in an armed uprising against Kiev's forces in Eastern Ukraine.
After years of clashes and tension between the two countries, the conflict erupted in a comprehensive war when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Moscow's attempts to take control of the capital were thwarted, but the Russian forces took about one fifth of the territory of Ukraine to the east and south and committed air strikes across the country.
Ukraine avenges with drones and offensive in the Russian Kursk region.
The exact number of casualties is difficult to achieve because of a secret by both Russian and Ukrainian governments, but it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of troops and civilians were killed or wounded.