Trump says he has spoken with Putin about ending Ukraine war
Donald Trump has stated that he has engaged in discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding a negotiated resolution to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, which has lasted nearly three years. He suggested that Russian negotiators are willing to meet with their U.S. counterparts.
Speaking to the New York Post, Trump mentioned that he had communicated with Putin but declined to specify how many times, saying, “I better not say.”
During an interview aboard Air Force One on Friday, Trump expressed his belief that Putin “does care” about the battlefield casualties but did not confirm whether the Russian leader had made any concrete commitments to ending the conflict.
Trump asserted that he has a plan to bring the war to an end but did not share details. “I hope it’s fast. Every day, people are dying. This war is devastating for Ukraine. I want to end this damn thing,” he said.
Last month, Trump estimated that around 1 million Russian soldiers and 700,000 Ukrainian troops had been killed since the war began—figures significantly higher than those reported by Ukrainian officials or independent analysts.
The Post reported that National Security Adviser Michael Waltz was present during Trump’s interview.
“Let’s get these meetings going,” Trump urged. “They want to meet. Every day, people are dying. Young, handsome soldiers are being killed—young men, like my sons—on both sides, all over the battlefield.”
However, Waltz did not confirm whether Trump had spoken with Putin. In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, he acknowledged that “there are certainly a lot of sensitive conversations going on” and noted that senior U.S. diplomats would be in Europe this week to discuss efforts to end the war by bringing both sides to the negotiating table.
According to Waltz, ending the war has been a key topic in Trump’s discussions with world leaders, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Middle Eastern officials. “Everybody is ready to help President Trump end this war,” he said. Waltz also reiterated Trump’s stance on using tariffs, sanctions, and taxes against Russia if necessary.
“The president is prepared to put all of those issues on the table this week, including the future of U.S. aid to Ukraine,” Waltz added. He emphasized that recovering costs would involve cooperation with Ukraine, particularly concerning its natural resources, including rare earth materials, oil, and gas, as well as potential purchases from the U.S.
Waltz reaffirmed what he described as the Trump administration’s “underlying principle” that Europe must take primary responsibility for the conflict moving forward. “President Trump is going to end it, and from there, security guarantees will rest squarely with the Europeans,” he said.
During his presidential campaign, Trump made repeated vows to end the war quickly if he was re-elected, often pointing to the loss of life on the battlefield.
Last month, Trump said “Most people thought this war would last about a week, and now it’s been going on for three years,” and said the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, had expressed interest in a negotiated peace deal.
During the interview on Friday, Trump again expressed sorrow for the loss of life in the war and compared the young men dying to his own sons.
“All those dead people. Young, young, beautiful people. They’re like your kids, two million of them – and for no reason,” Trump told the Post, adding that Putin also “wants to see people stop dying”.
The Kremlin on Sunday declined to confirm or deny the report of the phone call. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS state news agency he was unaware of any such call.
“What can be said about this news: as the administration in Washington unfolds its work, many different communications arise. These communications are conducted through different channels. And of course, amid the multiplicity of these communications, I may not know something, or be unaware of something. Therefore, in this case, I can neither confirm nor deny it.”
The Kremlin has previously said it is awaiting “signals” on a possible meeting between Trump and Putin. The head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, Leonid Slutsky, has said that work on preparing contacts between Moscow and Washington “is at an advanced stage”.
The US president also ventured into the current stand-off between Israel and Iran, saying he “would like a deal done with Iran on non-nuclear” and would prefer a negotiated deal to “bombing the hell out of it… They don’t want to die. Nobody wants to die.”
If there was a deal with Iran, he said, “Israel wouldn’t bomb them”. But he declined to go further on any approach to Iran: “In a way, I don’t like telling you what I’m going to tell them. You know, it’s not nice.”
“I could tell what I have to tell them, and I hope they decide that they’re not going to do what they’re currently thinking of doing. And I think they’ll really be happy,” Trump added.
