Trump reveals Putin open to ending Ukraine war after phone conversation

U.S. President Donald Trump, on Wednesday, said he had a “lengthy and highly productive phone call” with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the conversation revolved around many topics from AI to the market power of the dollar but the priority was ending the nearly three year-old Ukrainian war.

Mr Trump who has always insisted that Russia would never have invaded Ukraine if he were the U.S. president in 2022 said that he and Mr Putin agreed “to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the war.”

The American leader said both he and the Russian president reminisced about centuries-old history, particularly how Russia and the U.S. fought during World War II.

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Mr Trump, who first posted the details of his phone call with Mr Putin on social media, said he will inform the Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy of the latest development “right now,” most likely after the post.

“Millions of people have died in a War that would not have happened if I were President, but it did happen, so it must end. No more lives should be lost!,” Mr Trump stressed in the statement announcing the phone call with Russia’s leader.

The U.S. president already mentioned key members of his cabinet who will lead negotiations to end the war, some of which include Steve Witkoff — the man who was instrumental to the Israeli and Palestinian ceasefire.

Others are Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA director John Ratcliffe and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz.

The conversation between the two presidents came one day after U.S. citizen Marc Fogel, a school teacher and former diplomat who languished in a Russian prison for three years was released. Mr Fogel was imprisoned for illegal possession of cannabis in Russia in 2022, albeit his arrest was in 2021.