President Donald Trump concluded an almost three-hour long call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday amid negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
In a readout of the meeting, the White House said the two leaders have agreed to start negotiating a ceasefire for specific areas.
“The leaders agreed that the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire, as well as technical negotiations on implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace,” the statement read.
Negotiations will begin immediately in the Middle East.
The leaders reportedly agreed that the conflict must end with a lasting peace and stressed the need for improved bilateral relations between the United States and Russia.
“The blood and treasure that both Ukraine and Russia have been spending in this war would be better spent on the needs of their people,” the statement added. “The two leaders agreed that a future with an improved bilateral relationship between the United States and Russia has huge upside. This includes enormous economic deals and geopolitical stability when peace has been achieved.”
Putin and Trump also spoke about the conflicts in the Middle East, agreeing that there is a need to stop the proliferation of strategic weapons and that Iran should never be in a position to destroy Israel.
An hour into the call, Dan Scavino, the White House Deputy Chief of Staff, said the conversation was “going well.”
Trump announced the call would take place while speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Sunday during a flight from Florida to Washington, D.C., the Associated Press reported.
“We will see if we have something to announce maybe by Tuesday. I will be speaking to President Putin on Tuesday,” Trump said. “A lot of work’s been done over the weekend. We want to see if we can bring that war to an end.”
U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff met with Putin in Moscow last week for an hours-long conversation that Witkoff described as “positive.”
“Back before this visit, there was another visit, and before that visit, the two sides were miles apart in where they were,” Witkoff said in an interview with CNN on Sunday. “The two sides are today, a lot closer. We had some really positive results coming out of Saudi Arabia, discussions led by our national security advisor, Mike Waltz, and our Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.”
Ukraine agreed to accept a 30-day ceasefire following negotiations with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Saudi Arabia last week. The ceasefire would take effect immediately following Russian approval, and could be extended by mutual agreement.
In a joint statement by the United States and Ukraine, leaders called the negotiations “steps toward restoring durable peace for Ukraine.”
Witkoff called his conversation with Putin “equally positive” to the negotiations in Saudi Arabia.
“So the two sides have, we’ve narrowed the differences between them, and now we’re sitting at the table,” Witkoff said.
In a CBS interview on Sunday, Rubio praised Witkoff’s meeting.
“There are some challenges,” Rubio said. “This is a complex, three-year war that’s been ongoing along a very long military front with a lot of complexity to it. No one’s claiming that it’s easy, but I want everyone to understand here’s the plan.”
Rubio said Plan A is to implement a ceasefire to stop the fighting and then to move to Plan B, which is to figure out a way to permanently end the war.
“No one is saying that that second part is easy, but we can’t get even to that second part until we get past the first part,” Rubio said. “It’s hard to negotiate an enduring end to a war as long as they’re shooting at each other, and so the President wants a ceasefire. That’s what we’re working on. Assuming we can get that done — that won’t be easy in and of itself — we move to the second phase, which is negotiating something more enduring and permanent.”
Last week, Ukraine launched its largest drone attack in the Moscow area, during which 343 drones were downed over Russia. Three employees of a meat warehouse were killed, and 17 other people were injured, Reuters reported. Russia attacked Ukraine on Tuesday with a ballistic missile and 126 drones over various parts of the country, wounding two people.
The ballistic Iskander-M missile and 79 of the drones were shot down, according to the Ukrainian Air Force. The attack reportedly set a fuel storage facility, a private home, and a storage site for children’s toys on fire in Odesa.
