Trump Announces Start Of Negotiations To End War In Ukraine After Call With Putin

President Donald Trump has announced the start of negotiations to end the war in Ukraine following a “highly productive” phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

“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 posted on Truth Social.

Trump said he is tasking Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of the CIA John Ratcliffe, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, and Ambassador and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff with leading the negotiations.

“Millions of people have died in a War that would not have happened if I were President, but it did happen, so it must end,” Trump said. “No more lives should be lost!”

It is estimated that more than one million Ukrainians have been injured or killed in the war that began in 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported.

During the call, Trump said the two leaders discussed various other topics, including the Middle East, energy, and artificial intelligence.

????After a call with Putin, President Trump announces he will start negotiations immediately to bring an end to the war in Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/pWjBoNveXK

— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) February 12, 2025

“We each talked about the strengths of our respective Nations, and the great benefit that we will someday have in working together,” Trump added. “But first, as we both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine. President Putin even used my very strong Campaign motto of, “COMMON SENSE.” We both believe very strongly in it.”

Trump also said the two leaders promised to work together and visit each other’s nations. The last U.S. president to visit Russia was former President Barack Obama in 2013 at the G-20 Economic Summit in St. Petersburg, which was before tensions with Russia exploded with the Kremlin’s invasion of Crimea.

Trump thanked Putin for releasing school teacher Marc Fogel, who was wrongfully imprisoned in Russia for more than three years. In exchange for Fogel, the Trump administration released Russian cybercriminal Alexander Vinnik, who had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and faced 20 years in prison.

Earlier this week, Zelensky proposed a land swap with Russia to bring an end to the three-year-long war.

“We will swap one territory for another,” Zelensky suggested in an interview with The Guardian published Tuesday.

Ukraine has been occupying parts of Russia’s Kursk Oblast after capturing it in a surprise incursion in August. Zelensky said he is unsure what Russian-occupied region he would demand in return. Russia currently occupies about 20% of Ukraine, while Ukraine occupies about 500 square kilometers of Russia.

Vice President JD Vance and other administration officials are in Europe this week to meet with allies and Ukrainian officials to discuss plans for ending the war. Vance is scheduled to meet with Zelensky at the Munich Security Conference.

Putin has made several demands for ending the war, including Ukraine abandoning aspirations to join NATO and allowing Russia to have control over four Ukrainian territories: Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia.