Trump, Putin set Saudi Arabia meet on Ukraine
Trump’s call with Putin has raised concerns that the US was agreeing to Russia’s terms and Ukraine will be left out of talks on its own fate
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Trump’s call with Putin has raised concerns that the US was agreeing to Russia’s terms and Ukraine will be left out of talks on its own fate
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Donald Trump revealed Wednesday he expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Saudi Arabia for Ukraine peace talks, in an extraordinary thaw in relations after a surprise phone call between the two leaders.
In their first confirmed contact since Trump’s return to the White House, the US president said he had held a “lengthy and highly productive” conversation with the Russian counterpart who ordered the bloody 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Trump took the world by surprise as he announced the phone call on his Truth Social platform earlier, saying he and Putin had “both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine,” using an unconfirmed figure for the toll in the conflict.
The US president said they had agreed to “work together very closely, including visiting each other’s Nations” and to “have our respective teams start negotiations immediately” on Ukraine.
“We expect that he’ll come here, and I’ll go there — and we’re going to meet probably in Saudi Arabia the first time,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office about his plans to meet Putin.
Trump said he expected it to happen “in the not too distant future” and added that Saudi Crown Prince Prince Mohammed bin Salman — who played a key role in a Russia-US prisoner exchange this week — would also be involved.
The Kremlin said the call lasted nearly one-and-a-half hours. The two leaders had agreed that the “time has come to work together” and that Putin has invited Trump to Moscow, it said.
Before taking office on 20 January, Trump had promised to end the Ukraine war “within 24 hours.”
Trump later called Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was not included on the call with Putin.
Zelensky said afterwards that he had a “meaningful” call with Trump in which he had “shared details” of his talks with Putin.
Trump said after the conversation that Zelensky “like President Putin, wants to make PEACE.”
Andriy Yermak, head of Kyiv’s presidential office, said in televised comments that Zelensky and Trump had agreed to “immediately” start work on the high-level teams from each side who will try to hash out a deal.
The teams will “begin a process of daily work” and Zelensky and his officials will meet US officials involved at the Munich Security Conference in a day’s time, Yermak said.
But Trump’s call with Putin has raised concerns that the US was agreeing to Russia’s terms and Ukraine will be left out of talks on its own fate, after Trump said Kyiv’s wish to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was not “practical” — a key demand of Moscow.
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