President Putin And Trump Talk On Phone: Russia-US Ready To Start Negotiating To End Ukraine's War

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. (Source: Kremlin)

JAKARTA - Russia and the United States will immediately start negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, after Washington and Moscow leaders held telephone talks on Wednesday.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed President Vladimir Putin's telephone conversation with President Donald Trump.

"The telephone conversation between President Putin and US leader Donald Trump has just ended," Peskov said, quoted from TASS on February 13.

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

President Trump has repeatedly announced plans to speak with the Russian president in recent weeks.

The US leader has paid much attention to the conflict in Ukraine and expressed his desire to help end it.

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.