President Donald Trump has spoken on the phone with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to try to find an end to the now nearly three-years long war in Ukraine, he told the New York Post in an interview on Friday.
“He wants to see people stop dying,” Trump said. “All those dead people. Young, young, beautiful people. They’re like your kids, 2 million of them—and for no reason.”
Why It Matters
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is now nearing the three-year mark, with reported heavy casualties on both sides. According to the current estimates, it’s the deadliest and largest conflict in Europe since World War II.
What to Know
Among civilians, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has documented more than 39,000 deaths since the beginning of the war. While both Kyiv and Moscow have an interest in concealing the number of their troops killed, U.S. officials estimate that Russia has suffered at least 700,000 casualties.
In December, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Telegram that 43,000 of its soldiers had died on the battlefield, while more than 370,000 have been wounded.
Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion has continued thanks to the crucial aid provided by its allies, including the U.S.; in three years, the country has recaptured roughly 50 percent of occupied territory, while 20 percent remains under Moscow’s control, according to the Center for Preventive Action.
However, Ukraine’s counteroffensive has largely stalled, while Russia is pushing through Ukraine’s northeast front in the Kharkiv region.
Trump informed the New York Post of his call with Putin on Friday, during an interview aboard Air Force One, but refused to specify how often he has talked with the Russian leader. “I’d better not say,” he told the newspaper.
According to the president, the Russian leader—who ordered the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022—is open to seeing an end to the conflict, as he “does care” about the high number of casualties on the battlefront.
Trump said that the war would have never broken out if he had been president at the time. “I always had a good relationship with Putin,” he told the Post. “Biden was an embarrassment to our nation. A complete embarrassment.”
ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images; KRISTINA KORMILITSYNA/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Attempts to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine were made at the very beginning of the conflict, but were quickly abandoned after failing to find a solution that would satisfy both countries. During his presidential campaign last year, Trump repeatedly said he would end the war “in one day.”
His timeline has now been extended to “months,” according to what some Trump advisers told Reuters in January. The president has since appointed highly decorated, retired General Keith Kellogg to be his special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, with the main responsibility of ending the war as soon as possible.
In an interview with Fox News in January, Kellogg said he would like to find a “solution” to the war within 100 days.
The president told the New York Post that he has a plan to end the war in Ukraine, but didn’t offer any details about it. “I hope it’s fast. Every day people are dying. This war is so bad in Ukraine. I want to end this damn thing,” he said.
Speaking to National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, he said: “Let’s get these meetings going. They want to meet. Every day people are dying. Young handsome soldiers are being killed. Young men, like my sons. On both sides. All over the battlefield.”
What People Are Saying
Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s press secretary, told TASS, Russia’s state-owned news agency on Sunday: “Communications between Moscow and Washington occur through different channels.
He said he could “neither confirm nor deny” reporting of the conversation between Putin and Trump.
John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and now director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, said in January that Kellogg’s 100-day timeline was “way, way too optimistic. For this to work, Trump has to persuade Putin that there’s a downside for being intransigent.”
Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of Zelensky’s office, said, as reported by the BBC: “There’s a lot of talk about negotiations, but it’s an illusion. No negotiation process can take place because Russia has not been made to pay a high enough price for this war.”
What’s Next
Vice President JD Vance and Kellogg will be attending this year’s annual Munich Security Conference next week, as will Zelensky, who will lead the Ukrainian delegation. While there is no set date for a meeting between the vice president and the Ukrainian leader, Vance said it will happen.
Andriy Yermak, Ukraine’s president chief of staff, told The Associated Press that his country’s delegation will present its position on ending the war at the conference and present the U.S. with “full and real information” about the situation on the battlefield.
“It’s necessary that the leaders and the experts in politics who will be in Munich realize that this is momentum,” he told the news agency. “That we are very near to really ending this war by a just and lasting peace, but [it is] necessary to be together (…) not to give Russia an opportunity to divide the world, to divide partners.”
