U.S. President Trump answered questions from reporters at the airport before departing Washington for Texas. Describing his phone call with Russian President Putin, Trump said Putin wanted an agreement on Ukraine.
Trump said it would be a positive development if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also sought an agreement. He attributed the two leaders’ failure to reach an understanding so far to Putin and Zelenskyy hating each other.
Trump said he had spoken with both Putin and Zelenskyy to reach a peace agreement and expressed openness to the two leaders meeting directly.
Kremlin Foreign Policy Adviser Yuriy Ushakov said the Ukraine crisis was discussed during the phone call between Trump and Putin. Ushakov described the roughly hour-long call as constructive and sincere, and said it had gone positively.
Ushakov said Trump’s special representatives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner’s contacts in Moscow and Kyiv were also reviewed during the call. Ushakov said the visits by the American representatives had been positively received and that work would continue through these channels and other avenues of contact.