Trump, Putin agree to begin negotiations to end Ukraine war

U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed during a phone conversation earlier in the day that Washington and Moscow will immediately engage in direct negotiations aimed at ending the Ukraine-Russia conflict, reported Xinhua.

"I just had a lengthy and highly productive phone call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia," Trump said, offering his version of the content of the call in a post on Truth Social.

Trump said he and Putin agreed that "we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine."

"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, and we will begin by calling President Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation, something which I will be doing right now," Trump said.

He said he has asked U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency John Ratcliffe, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz and Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff to lead the U.S. team in the negotiations.

Trump said he felt "strongly" that the negotiations between the United States and Russia "will be successful."

Meanwhile, the Kremlin announced on Wednesday that Putin held a phone conversation with Trump.

"The Russian president has invited the U.S. president to visit Moscow," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that Putin expressed readiness to receive U.S. officials in Moscow.

The two presidents discussed the situation in Ukraine and the peaceful settlement of the conflict, Peskov said, stressing that Trump embraced a quick ceasefire and peaceful settlement of the problem while Putin underlined the needs to eliminate the root causes of the Ukraine conflict.

"During the talks, they also touched upon the issues of the Middle East, Iran's nuclear program as well as Russia-U.S. relations in the economic domain," Peskov said.

He noted that Putin and Trump, during the talks, agreed to keep personal contacts, including arranging a meeting in the future.

The Kremlin spokesman described the phone conversation as an "extensive and substantive dialogue," which lasted nearly 90 minutes.