U.S. President Donald Trump spoke with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine, stepping up his push to broker a peace deal and saying he and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed their teams would "start negotiations immediately" on ending the war in Ukraine.
"We discussed Ukraine, the Middle East, Energy, Artificial Intelligence, the power of the Dollar, and various other subjects" in a "lengthy and highly productive" call with Putin on February 12, Trump said in a post on his Truth Social media outlet.
He said he and Putin both "want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine," in which estimates of military casualties on both sides taken together, including dead and wounded, total between 1 and 2 million. Many Ukrainian civilians have also been killed.
"We agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other’s Nations. We have also agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately," Trump said, adding that he was about to call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy "to inform him of the conversation."
Zelenskyy later said he and Trump discussed "opportunities to achieve peace" and "our readiness to work together at the team level," among other things.
"Ukraine wants peace more than anyone. We will determine our joint steps with America to stop the Russian aggression and guarantee a reliable, prolonged peace," he said in social media posts. "As President Trump said, 'Let's get it done.'"
In a social media post, Trump said his conversation with Zelenskyy "went very well. He, like President Putin, wants to make PEACE."
Trump said later that he expects to meet Putin, probably in Saudi Arabia. He also said he did not think it was practical for Ukraine to have NATO membership and it was unlikely that Ukraine would get back all the land that Russia is occupying.
The U.S. president told reporters that Putin said he wanted the war to end and did not want a return to fighting six months later.
According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Trump "expressed support for an immediate cessation of hostilities and resolving the issue through peaceful means."
"President Putin, for his part, mentioned the need to eliminate the root causes of the conflict and agreed with Trump that a long-term settlement can be achieved through peaceful negotiations," Peskov said.
He did not elaborate, but Putin has accused Washington and the West of using Ukraine to undermine Russian security, a claim the United States, NATO, and the European Union say is baseless.
Peskov said Putin invited Trump to visit Moscow and that Russia is prepared to receive U.S. officials for talks.
The call was the first confirmed direct contact between the two presidents since Trump, who has repeatedly vowed to broker a swift end to the war, took office on January 20.
It came as Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine nears its three-year mark later this month and as diplomacy heats up ahead of the February 14-16 Munich Security Conference, which Zelenskyy and senior U.S. officials plan to attend.
In Kyiv, Zelenskyy met with visiting U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to discuss a potential deal on Ukraine's critical minerals and said he hopes the two countries can reach an agreement on the matter at the conference in Munich.
Zelenskyy spoke at a joint press conference with Bessent, who presented him with an initial draft agreement during their meeting and said a deal on the minerals could leave Ukraine with a "security shield" once the war with Russia is over.
Trump has said the United States wants access to Ukraine's rare earth minerals. Zelenskyy has stressed that strong Western security guarantees for Ukraine, with U.S. involvement, are crucial to any deal to end the war.
Bessent said his visit showed that the Trump administration is determined to end the war and that the United States stands with Ukraine against Russian aggression.
Trump's promises to end the war quickly have caused concerns in Kyiv that it may be pressured to accept a lopsided peace or cease-fire deal that favors Moscow and leaves Ukraine vulnerable to further Russian assaults.
Russia controls about one-fifth of Ukraine, including the Crimean Peninsula, and its forces have been pushing forward in the eastern Donbas region for months, albeit at a massive cost, while pounding civilian targets nationwide.
In a blow to Ukraine's hopes of regaining control over its entire territory, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said it is "unrealistic" to expect Ukraine's borders to return to their positions before 2014, when Russia seized Crimea and fomented war in the Donbas.
Hegseth also told a meeting of Ukraine's military allies at NATO headquarters in Brussels on February 12 that Washington would not deploy troops to Ukraine in any agreed peace deal and that NATO membership is not seen by the White House as part of the solution to the conflict.
He added that U.S. forces would not be part of any security guarantee in a peace settlement.
"We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine. But we must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective," Hegseth said in some of the most detailed comments by a U.S. official on how Trump will approach efforts to end the war.
"To be clear, as part of any security guarantee, there will not be U.S. troops deployed to Ukraine," Hegseth told a group of some 50 member countries who have been supporting Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022.