President Trump’s call with Vladimir Putin.
Trump and Putin held a call on peace in Ukraine
President Trump said that he had a “lengthy and highly productive phone call” with President Vladimir Putin of Russia, which he characterized as the beginning of a negotiation to end the war in Ukraine. Afterward, Trump said he had spoken with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.
“We each talked about the strengths of our respective Nations, and the great benefit that we will someday have in working together,” Trump wrote on social media of his call with Putin. “But first, as we both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths” — in fact, an estimated several hundred thousand — “taking place in the war.”
The call signifies the collapse of Western efforts to isolate Putin diplomatically.
Trump did not say how Ukraine’s interests would factor into the negotiations. But Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said earlier at a NATO meeting in Brussels that a peace deal restoring Ukraine’s borders to those of 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea, was “unrealistic.” Russia now occupies about 20 percent of Ukraine. Trump, Hegseth added, does not support Ukraine’s membership in NATO as part of a peace plan.
Minerals deal: Ukraine’s valuable mineral resources have become a prominent component in the maneuvering over the country’s future after Trump pushed the idea of trading U.S. aid for Ukrainian minerals. The U.S. Treasury secretary was in Kyiv for talks about a possible deal.
At the front: Our reporters interviewed Russian soldiers who said they were facing a brutal battle to dislodge Ukrainian forces from the Kursk region inside Russia. Trapped civilians fear catastrophe.
Prisoners: The Trump administration is preparing to release Alexander Vinnik, a Russian cybercriminal, as part of an exchange, and Belarus released a U.S. prisoner and two others from jail, following what diplomats said was a secret visit by a senior U.S. official.