WASHINGTON/MOSCOW/KYIV: Donald Trump has revealed that both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed a willingness to pursue peace during separate phone conversations with him on Wednesday, prompting the US leader to direct senior officials to initiate talks aimed at ending the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The development comes after his defence secretary suggested Kyiv must abandon its ambitions of joining NATO and reclaiming territories occupied by Russia.
After speaking with Putin for more than an hour, Trump said the Russian leader, who launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, wants the war to end, and they discussed "getting a ceasefire in the not-too-distant future."
"He wants it to end. He doesn't want to end it and then go back to fighting six months later," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
"I think we're on the way to getting peace. I think President Putin wants peace, President Zelensky wants peace, and I want peace. I just want to see people stop getting killed," he added.
Trump has long said he would quickly end the war in Ukraine, without spelling out exactly how he would accomplish this.
The Kremlin earlier said Putin and Trump had agreed to meet, and Putin had invited Trump to visit Moscow. Trump said their first meeting would "probably" take place soon in Saudi Arabia.
In a post on his social media platform, he said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff would lead negotiations on ending the war.
Trump and Zelensky spoke after Trump's call with Putin, and Zelensky's office said the conversation lasted for about an hour.
"I had a meaningful conversation with POTUS. We... talked about opportunities to achieve peace, discussed our readiness to work together ...and Ukraine's technological capabilities... including drones and other advanced industries," Zelensky wrote on X.
No Ukraine peace talks have been held since the early months of the conflict, now approaching its third anniversary. Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden, oversaw billions of dollars of military and other aid to Kyiv and had no direct contact with Putin after Russia's invasion.
Russia occupies around a fifth of Ukraine and has demanded Kyiv cede more territory and be rendered permanently neutral under any peace deal.
Ukraine demands Russia withdraw from captured territory and says it must receive NATO membership or equivalent security guarantees to prevent Moscow from attacking again.
Earlier on Wednesday, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered the new administration's bluntest statement so far on its approach to the war, saying it was unrealistic for Kyiv to hope to recover all of Ukraine's territory occupied by Russia since 2014, as was securing its membership in NATO.
"We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine. But we must start by recognising that returning to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective," Hegseth told a meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels. "Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering."
Russia in 2014 annexed Crimea, which Ukraine and many Western countries consider to be occupied Ukrainian territory.
Hegseth said any durable peace must include "robust security guarantees to ensure that the war will not begin again". But he said US troops would not be deployed to Ukraine as part of such guarantees.
Germany, France, Poland, Italy, Spain, the UK, and the European Union said in a joint statement Ukraine's fate must not be decided without Kyiv's active participation. They said they were ready to enhance support for Ukraine and put it in a position of strength.
Zelensky, hoping to keep Trump interested in continuing to support his country, has lately proposed a deal under which the United States would invest in minerals in Ukraine.
Trump's Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in Kyiv on Wednesday on the first visit by a member of Trump's cabinet, said such a mineral deal could serve as a "security shield" for Ukraine after the war.
Trump also said Rubio and Vice President JD Vance will hold talks about the war on Friday in Munich, where Ukrainian officials were expected to attend an annual security conference.
The new diplomacy followed a US-Russia prisoner swap that got under way on Tuesday, which the Kremlin said could help build trust between the two countries.
Russia on Tuesday freed American schoolteacher Marc Fogel, who was serving a 14-year sentence in a Russian prison, in exchange for a Russian cybercrime boss imprisoned in the US, according to an official.