President Donald Trump said he will meet Vladimir Putin to discuss the peace in Ukraine and their first sit-down will probably be in Saudi Arabia.
He made the announcement in the Oval Office after a 90 -minute phone call with the Russian leader.
Trump said: 'We expect him to come here, and I will go there, and we will meet, probably in Saudi Arabia. The first time we will meet in Saudi Aarabia, see if we get something done.
“We know the crown prince, I think it would be a very good place to meet each other.”
The president indicated that the meeting would be him and Putin and would not include the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zensky. Trump would also not be committed to going to Ukraine and saying that he would think about it.
He said, “We probably have a first meeting and then we will see what we can do about a second meeting.”
Trump also blamed his predecessor, President Joe Biden, because he had never ended the war before.
“I'm not going to tell you my plan, this should have been done by Biden, not by me, this has been going on for a long time,” he said.
Trump made his comments while Tulsi Gabbard was sworn in as his director of National Intelligence.
He and Putin met earlier, during the first term of Trump, in Helsinki, Finland in July 2018.
In the meantime, Zensky said that he believed that Trump could 'put pressure on Putin in a peace plan.
“We believe that the power of America is sufficient to put pressure on Russia and Putin in peace,” he said in the video message posted after his conversation with the president.
“We do our best to bring peace closer,” he added. 'I thank everyone who helps.
Donald Trump said he would meet Vladimir Putin in Saudi -Arabia
Earlier in the day, Trump announced that he had personally discussed a peace plan with Putin. He then called Zensky to update the Ukrainian leader.
“I think we are on our way to every peace,” he told reporters of those conversations. “I think President Putin wants peace and President Zensky wants peace. I want peace. I just want to see people stop being killed. '
In a phone call of 90 minutes on Wednesday, Trump and Putin also laid the foundation for historical peaks between them in the US and Moscow.
Trump made the Bombshell announcement in a long position of his social report of the truth and stated that 'the war must end'.
He also said that the two leaders corresponded to visit each other's countries soon. Trump would be the first American president to visit Russia since Barack Obama in 2013.
Trump announced the negotiations and wrote: 'We want to stop the millions of deaths that take place in the war with Russia/Ukraine. President Putin even used my very strong campaignmotto from 'Common Sense'.
'We both strongly believe in it. We agreed to work together, including visiting each other's nations. '
He added: “We also agreed to start our respective teams immediately, and we will start with President Zenskyy, Van Ukraine, to inform him about the conversation, something I will do now.”
Trump then called Zensky and then stated that the Ukrainian leader also wants to put an end to the war.
The American president wrote: “The conversation went very well. Like President Putin, he wants to make peace. '
Trump said Zensky would meet on Friday in Munich with vice president JD Vance and State Secretary Marco Rubio.
He wrote: 'I hope that the results of that meeting will be positive. It is time to stop this ridiculous war, where huge and totally unnecessary, death and destruction has been. God bless the people of Russia and Ukraine! '
Trump's statement will send shock waves all over the world.
President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin Shake Hands while they meet in Helsinki in July 2018
President Donald Trump, first Lady Melania Trump (2nd R), King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud (2nd L) and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi (L), an enlightened globe in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 21 May 2017 during the First term of Trump
White House Pers Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Trump and Putin had spoken
Earlier on Wednesday his administration said that it ended all American help to Ukraine – a blow to Zensky, who has difficulty keeping his nation together.
Trump's move also put pressure on European allies who have been a bastion of support for Kiev.
In his post, Trump continued to say why the war had to be brought to an end.
He wrote: 'Millions of people died in a war that would not have happened if I was president, but it happened, so it has to end. No lives may be lost! '
Trump and Putin spoke for almost an hour and a half and agreed to meet each other, said the Kremlin in the reading of the call.
It was Putin's first known direct contact with an American president since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“President Putin … Trump agreed that a long -term arrangement could be achieved through peaceful negotiations,” said the Kremlin.
The call followed a prisoner who led Russia to release the American teacher Marc Fogel, from Pennsylvania, after more than three years of detention.
Trump welcomed Fogel in the White House on Tuesday evening after his return to the American soil.
In his truth Social Post, Trump said: 'I want to thank President Putin for his time and effort with regard to this call, and for the release, yesterday, by Marc Fogel, a great man I greeted in The White house last night.
“I believe that this effort will lead to a successful conclusion, hopefully soon!”
Alexander Vinnik, a convicted Russian criminal, is also released as part of an exchange.
Vinnik was arrested in Greece in 2017 at the request of the US for cryptocurrency fraud and was later extradited to the United States where he pleaded guilty for conspiracy last year to conduct money laundering.
He is currently in custody in California awaiting transport to return to Russia.
Moreover, an American citizen, whose name has not been announced, is freed from Wit -Russia.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zensky me meets the American secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent in Kiev
Trump's announcement about Truth Social
US Minister of Defense Pete Hegseeth at the start of the Ukrainian defense contact group meeting at NATO headquarters
The call between Trump and Putin took place when the administration announced that America will no longer present the lion's share of Ukraine's help. The decision is a devastating blow to Kiev and will stack pressure on Europe to fill the void.
Secretary Pete Hegseeth said that Washington will no longer tolerate an unbalanced relationship with his allies, and adds that “Europe should offer the overwhelming share of future deadly and non-deadly assistance to Ukraine.”
He emphasized that the United States were no longer 'mainly focused' on Europe and said that the old continent should finance the majority of Ukraine's defense itself – because experts warned that the requirements for Europe 'were not too little at the moment . '
In a blessing for Putin, Hegseeth added that the United States would not use troops in Ukraine to maintain a peace agreement with Russia – one of the most important security guarantees requested by Zensky.
Hegseeth also said that it was unbelievable for Ukraine to return to a pre -war state, with which they assess that peace process “must start by acknowledging that return to the boundaries of the Pre-2014 of Ukraine is an unrealistic objective.”
“The United States will continue to work for NATO alliance and the Defense partnership with Europe, full stop,” he said. “But the United States will no longer tolerate an unbalanced relationship that encourages dependence.”
The allies of Washington have nervously waited for clarity of Trump's government after he demanded that NATO was more than the target of defense expenditure and promised to end the war in Ukraine.
The comments from Hegseeth will increase Ukrainian fears and hand lever to Russia, after Trump suggested that the country is 'ever Russian' in disturbing comments during an interview with Fox News, broadcast Monday.
Buren walk past a damaged building after a Russian shelling in the Ukrainian city of Kostianyynivka on February 10, 2025
Russia says that it annexed five regions of Ukraine – Crimea in 2014 and then Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia in 2022 – although it has no complete control over them.
Putin said last year that a deal would decrease in the recognition of Ukraine of the Russia claim in four regions in the east and south, including areas that are currently not controlled by Russia.
Zensky has rejected any territorial concessions to Moscow, although he has acknowledged that Ukraine might have to rely on diplomatic means to guarantee the return of a certain territory.
