Calling Zelensky After Talking To Putin, Trump: He Also Wants Peace

JAKARTA - United States President Donald Trump said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wanted peace after making telephone calls, having previously also made phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

President Trump made a phone call with the two warring country leaders on Wednesday, the first diplomatic move he has taken since being sworn in to end the war that broke out in February 2022.

In an upload on his social media platform after speaking with President Putin, President Trump said they "approved our respective teams to start negotiations immediately," and he will start by calling President Zelensky.

After the phone call with the Ukrainian leader, President Trump said: "Talks are going very well. He, like President Putin, wants to create peace."

Meanwhile, President Zelensky said he had made phone calls with President Trump, discussing "the opportunity to achieve peace" and preparing documents governing security and economic cooperation.

"I had meaningful conversations with @POTUS. We talked about the opportunity to achieve peace, discussing our readiness to work together and Ukraine's technological capabilities including drones and other advanced industries," President Zelensky wrote on X.

The Ukrainian Presidential Office said separately the phone call lasted about an hour.

President Zelensky said President Trump had shared details of his conversation with President Putin.

"We agreed to continue to be in touch and plan future meetings," he wrote.

Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov revealed President Putin and President Trump had held phone talks.

"The telephone conversation between President Putin and US leader Donald Trump has just ended," Peskov said, quoted by TASS.

"It was a very long phone call, lasting almost an hour and a half," he added.

After the conversation on the phone, he said the United States and Russia would hold negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.

"We have agreed that our respective teams immediately start negotiations, and we will start by calling President (Ukraine Volodymyr) Zelensky to inform him of the conversation, something I will do now," the US leader wrote on his Truth Social page.

"I have asked Foreign Minister Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Radcliffe, National Security Adviser Michael Waltz and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, to lead negotiations that, in my opinion, will succeed," Trump stressed.

According to Trump, fighting in Ukraine "must end."

"I would like to thank President Putin for his time and efforts in connection with this phone call, and for his release yesterday, Marc Fogel (a US citizen serving his sentence in Russia), an extraordinary man I personally welcomed last night at the White House. I am sure this effort will produce successful results, hopefully soon!" The US president added.